South Sea Hotel Stewart Island

... drive as we don’t have to worry about insurance here. Its pouring with rain and you should see the size of the water taxi compared to the size of the waves!!! Poor Em, it is VERY bumpy but thankfully is just a short 6minute ride to Ulva island. Once on the island we head for a walk to Boulder beach, passing a few Weka’s, and we see some NZ parakeets. But to be honest we hear more birdsong at our house than we do here! And we get closer to the ...

... here in New Zealand as opposed to something wonderful and unusual. The weather takes a turn as we arrive at a beach which is inhabited by Sealions - as we're walking through the mist one of the guys nearly steps on one of them. The sealion rouses up and we're all running to give it space. It hops back in the water to join his buddy. Today we split up - some (most of the bus) will stop off in Invercargill a southerly city in New Zealand ...

... we had a nice relaxing afternoon at another lodge, nearly as nice as the night before and lovely owners that only had organic fruit and veg., and today we are at a rather posh place with gourmet restaurant and all. So far the walk has been fantastic, the scenery is stunning as we have walked from the outer bit of Marlborough Sounds to Picton where the ferry arrived. Long long walk, but so worth it! Tomorrow we have ...

... je ne reste pas plus longtemps car il y a de superbes trecks a faire ici, on peut aussi faire du Kayak sur Mer ou aller faire de la peche avec les locaux. Moi je me contente d'une petite ballade le long de la cote principalement. Avec une population de moins de 400 habitants, la promenade est calme.. tres calme.. ;o) C'est vraiment agreable. Il fait beau (mais pas si chaud que ca...) et je m'arrete sur une petite plage deserte pour ...

... when we started rationing food, because we didn't bring quite enough for the calories we were burning. The last three days out we were on a meager portion of bland porridge, one granola bar, and one package of ramen. Needless to say we woke up hungry, hiked hungry, and went to bed hungry. We got to the 3rd to last hut where people could fly or boat in to stay, and they had crates upon food, and I couldn't stay in the cabin because of the envy. However, as we were ...

... up for offer, but my gumboots were beginning to rub from the walk yesterday and today, so I decided against. I'm sure the Milford track is going hurt a lot after not exercise for 30 days. On the cliffs we saw a rare snipe, it looks ...

We went away to the South Island for the Labour Day long weekend. It was a belated birthday present for Graham. We flew to Nelson on the Friday night and after picking up our hire car from the airport, spent one night in Kingsgate Beachcomber Hotel which was very comfortable and not too far from the beach or the airport. On Saturday morning we went to Nelson city centre ...

We got up at 06:30 to get ourselves ready for our walking trip on the Queen Charlotte Track. As we are camping overnight, we had to think about what stuff we would need e.g. cooker, food, camping gear etc. We finally made it down to the port at 09:15. Mike parked the car and then we boarded the catamaran, where, Ken, our driver, took us to our drop off point, Ship Cove. On our journey, the sun was shining and it looked set to be a lovely day. We came across a pod of dolphins ...

... a day walk into the park but as we get out of the car it starts raining. We walk for about an hour and a half before we retreat to the dryness of the car. We then drive into a different part of the National Park and as it's stopped raining we go for another walk, this time we're slightly luckier with the weather this time and make it to a massive cave which drops straight down into the ground. We walk back through the woods and then drive back to Nelson where we stay ...

We hung out in Wellington for the day, having beers and generally having a great time. We slept in Betsy in a car park in the middle of the city - can you imagine doing that in Glasgow City Centre. We got up at 6.30 the next morning and made our way to the ferry. As we were standing in the queue a guy came up to us, stuck a microphone in my face and said 'hi your on the radio, where are you heading?' He was basically a radio guy doing a ...