Foveaux Hotel Bluff

We finally left the marvels of the Mountainous regions behind and headed down to the Southern Coast to a stretch known as the Catlins. By, it was cold with the wind whipping off the Southern Oceans..next stop Antartica!

On the drive down to Curio Bay we stopped of at a little place called Monkey Island where we ate lunch and messed about on ...

Today didnt go off to a good start when I couldnt find the itinerary booklet. I have no idea where it went, I think it must have fallen out the car at some point, slightly annoying, although I knew our supposed destination for the night and we had other maps so it wasnt a complete disaster! It was also raining which wasn't fun, but our first day of properly not nice weather so cant complain too much.
We left Dunedin and our first ...

... fish and chips for an awesome price, this is also
one of the most southern points on the south island, we weren't game
enough to grab a boat over to Stewart Island.

The rest of the
day involved more awesome scenery and plenty of driving, we ended up at
Te Anau at about 1730 and grabbe a spot at the van park and an awesome
feed at an Italian restaurant - La Toscana

... afternoon was spent wine tasting, we went to 4 wineries (Hunters, Cloudy Bay, Mahi and Bouldervines). We tried some nice and some not so nice wines- The sauvignon blanc is our favourite (they call it sav here, which sounds very common to me, but the done thing!), as well as the pinot gris.  We came back with four bottles which we will enjoy soon! On Wednesday we drove down the Queen Charlotte drive along the coast, which is very beautiful but not one for anyone who ...

... you'll have to wait for pictures yet again, I'll let you know when they're up. St. Arnaud is a great small mountain/lake town that hasn't gone touristy. This limits where you can eat (one cafe, one restaurant) but it's quite and beautiful. The backpackers we stayed at was nice and we dipped our sore bodies in the hot tub as we watched the sunset over the mountains and got chewed on by sandflies. New Zealand would be paradise if it wasn't for the damn sandflies.

... Four wineries later, rather tasted out, we stopped off for olive oil sampling and coffee, before heading towards Havelock. Being suckers for punishment (and rather indecisive) we continued along Queen Charlotte drive looking for other campsites, though you could never get bored of those views. The supposed forty minute trip took us about ninety! The following morning after viewing the bay at high tide we continued up the Pelorus River to ...

We are sitting h**e on a crisp morning, looking out from a little hut (owned by Amanda (college friend of Jons) and h** man Karl) towards lake Harwea and the Haast Pass. We see Amanda's event horses grazing in the fields, the flat of the glaci** valley and the snow capped mountains in the background dotted with alpine forests, the clear blue skies have given way to low level cloud and storm may be brewing ov** the mountains - pretty atmosph**ic ...

... Suddenly while snaking around we spotted some fresh mud on the tarmac with skid marks veering off the road. David spotted a car in a ditch that had given a tree a Glaswegian kiss! We pulled up and David went to see if there were any people injured but even though all the glass windows had been smashed and the steering wheel was now banana-shaped, there wasn't a soul about so we just drove on. Funny how the mud on the road was so fresh though. (David: I suspect some writer somewhere ...

... hele dag. Ik krijg een lift naar de parkeerplaats. Hier begint mijn wandeling om het meer, een wandeling van ongeveer 7 tot 10 uur volgens het boekje. Ik doe het natuurlijk een stukje sneller en combineer het met een andere wandeling. Ik neem rustig mijn tijd en kom terug in het plaatsje vlak na zonsondergang. Hier haal ik fish en chips en hang wat rond in de hostel tot mijn ritje uit St. Arnaud. Koanu lodge

(Originally published at http://www.troysgonewalkabout.com)
< br>I continued my way south until I got to Bluff, at the very bottom tip of the South Island. For a small port town whose biggest sight is a signpost pointing to the South Pole and some other places, the harbourside main drag was clogged with gawking tourist traffic. Vans selling doughnuts and ice creams had set up shop next to the road and the police were out dealing with a minor traffic accident. But when I ...