Country Comfort Tayesta Motel Invercargill

... or restaurants. A few miles up the road is Gore (home of the gorons as someone once cruelly called the residents), the self claimed capital of trout fishing. It is also the home of the Hokonui Moonshine museum where you can a taste of the moonshine and join in the moonshine festival in February. It is also home to surprisingly good art gallery. Quite a combination I thought!
Not far away in the Catlins are NZ's very ...

Day 24
Rental company branch wasn't far from our hostel. By half 9 the things got sorted out and with a new car (Nissan Sunny) we were dashing to Milford Sounds. It was around 3.5 hour drive, mostly through picturesque country, especially just after Queenstown along Lake Wakatipu and then as we were approaching our target. It's unbelievable how few cars you can meet on such a long journey.
A bit less than 2 hour cruise we took early ...

... lived up to expectations. So much so we are returning in September for another stint. What have been the highlights? So many! For me it must be the sheep shearing on my 60th which is an experience never to be forgot. It summed up the hospitality and friendliness of Southland and it's people. Similarly the milking day. Another was flying over Mount Cook and landing on the glacier - awesome. There are also simple ...

... hat, ab** als ich nur noch 3m weg war, hat sie dann doch mal geatmet und ich habe sie nach einem Schappschuss lieb** wied** in Ruhe gelassen. B**eits im Dunkeln habe ich eine Unt**kunft gesucht und in dem Dorf namens Owaka gefunden. Ein Hostel am Strassenrand, dessen Tu** offen stand und ein Schild am Eingang besagt, dass man einfach hineingehen soll und sich ein Bett aussuchen darf. Irgendwann kaeme dann schon jemand zum kassi**en vorbei. Vor ...

... brightly lit neon takeout and coca cola signs! finally reaching dingo after sunset, we pitched up in a dark campground, sean went for a shower, and while gone i discovered mother mouse - you know from coral bay - had given birth to a family of six - later to become seven - baby mice! nice! all this meaning that once sean returned, discovered that the baby news meant mother mouse and not me, there was the task was rescuing them from a messy underseat cupboard, filled to the brim ...

... Right next to it there was a huge race track where we found the locals like to get up on a Sunday mornings at the crack of dawn and drive it. They weren't the type of cars we're used to seeing race - they were little loud Honda stock cars or something similar. In town we also climbed to the top of the old water tower. It was built in 1866. I just made that number up, but it was sometime near that. We got a great ...

... people go to see because it's not one of the recommended spots in the guide books, so we gave a BIG, well done, to ourselves! So, full of a sense of self importance we moved on to our last sightseeing spot of the day, and the Catlins, The Petrified Forest. We didn't know what to expect from the petrified forest, except that it was the remains of a Jurassic fossilised forest on a rocky part of the coast, that was only visible for a few hours either side of low tide. When we ...

... for free internet after my crushing defeat in the previous town. The Christchurch library supplied free wireless, and they were even nice enough (or careless enough?) to leave it on after hours so that it could be used by a shabbily dressed traveler parked out front in an equally shabby 7 year old rental car. Officer Friendly did give me a funny look, however, when he saw me parked there at 11pm with my hands going up and down rapidly in my lap ...

... Hector dolphins and other sea life). The waves were great on the 23rd and the kids enjoyed boogie boarding until a rather large seal chased them out of the water and onto the beach. The seal was a bit aggressive but eventually waddled up the sand to sit beside us to warm in the sun for awhile. A little later Bill spotted a group of Hector dolphins in the bay and the kids suited up and enjoyed boogie boarding with the friendly ...

... I think of it - its just very flat - we went to a museum - which I think is the only thing to do here - we did see some of these really old lizard looking things though - they are called Tuatara and are well strange - they can hold their breath in for an hour thay are that slow at life!!!

In the afty we headed to Bluff - It was OK I guess we went to the signpost - Billy Connelly did with all the arrows pointing to different parts ...