Victoria Railway Hotel Invercargill

... We also found time to go to Queens Park and Anderson's Park. One must do is a visit to the Southland Museum where Lindsay Hazlett has breed 100's of Tuatara's a pre historic reptile native to New Zealand, some don't even start breeding until to are over 100 years old.<br>Hints. <br>Allow plenty time in the Catlins.<br>Talk to the locals, they are a wealth of unpublished information.<br>At any price try Bluff Oysters, any other meal will be large and cheap.<br>Dress warm.<br>

... close enough for a reasonable zoomed picture. Fran was virtually in the sea at this point, a very safe distance from the sealions napping spot. And Becky hadn't moved from the point where we first spotted the log shaped mammal. We walked a little further along the beach, giving the creature a very wide birth, and when we spotted another one, we decided it was to much for our nerves. Off we headed, back to the campsite, with our suitably adventurous tales of waterfalls and sealions.

... the day we went, they were in fact closed due to bad weather, bug--r!! Undeterred, but with time now on our hands we drove on, deciding along the way to check out McLean Falls as an alternative to the Cathedral Caves. Well, it turned out to be a master stroke by us, as the half hour walk to the falls and the falls themselves, where probably the highlight of the Catlins for us and we decided seeing them made us better than everyone else as it's not somewhere ...

... you don't experience the thrill of coming around a corner and seeing frolicking bear cubs or moose or buffalo or elk, and the list goes on. Mount Cook was an interesting place to visit. It turns out that Sir Edmond Hillary, one of the first two people to climb Mount Everest, was one of New Zealand's native sons (which, not so surprisingly, explains why there is a picture of him on the NZ five dollar bill). [Tangent time: NZ does two fantastic ...

... summer holiday. Most people 'decamp' from their town or city and go away, whether it be to a bach by a lake, or the beach, or a campsite. Once there they just chill out, or enjoy themselves swimming, fishing, tramping, or partaking in one of the many adventure activities NZ is famed for. We will be going to the Cabbage Tree Restaurant for a buffet lunch followed - we ...

A shorter blog this week after last week's mammoth entry and because we have just come back after a couple of days in the Catlins. Incvercargill We've now been in Invercargill for just over 9 weeks, so what do we really think of it? Even after this relatively short time we think of it like a second home. We arrived with the misconception that the city would not have much to offer, which was put ...

... leading to a lot of birds losing their ability to fly as there was no need for it. The predators were mainly birds of prey that would pick their food from the skies or the canopy. Hence ground-dwelling birds knew no predators and were well protected by the trees. The introduction of man and other mammals has since led to extinction (the giant Moa) or near-extinction (Kakapo, Takahe = big flightless parrots) of these unique NZ birds. Enough natural history, bloody smart-ass German... <br ...