Thanks! Father’s Day here is in a few weeks I think. Every day is Father’s Day around here.

Weather - yep, it’s winter.

There has been a lot of rain around the country over the last few weeks. Last week there was a lot of snow down around the central Otago area (where we are now)

Coldest place on the trip so far - Oamaru Saturday night, a chilly 5 degrees C. (41F)

Yesterday in Dunedin was a balmy 11c (51F)

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That’s a different sport Icey!

Kiwis = rugby league aka League (my game)
All Blacks = rugby union aka Rugby (the national game)

Rugby - the All Blacks are playing 3x test matches again France at the moment. One every Saturday.

First one: NZ 52 - France 11 (in Auckland)

Second one (last Saturday night in Wellington): NZ 26 - France 13

Third one is this Saturday night here in Dunedin.

I’ll watch it on the TV in Queenstown.

The Dunedin stadium is called Forsyth Barr stadium.

It is the worlds first fixed roof, real grass stadium.

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Except when they ruck your nuts off.

Wayne Shelford style ...

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Yep! Around Queenstown I think. I will investigate and get back to you ....

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Rush hour in Dunedin! Well, 9:30am anyway ...

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Talking of food, here is the average NZ “cafe”. A coffee shop with food. Generally made on site, but sometimes bought in daily from a local kitchen. There are 1000s of these around the country.

Look at the food - all good hearty stuff!

Generally a good rule of thumb that I follow - the cafes with the 60s/70s retro furniture usually have the best coffee. Hint of the day!! Booom!

This one actually had two arcade machines out the back.

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Dunedin, like Oamaru, has lots of cool buildings from 1880-1910.

One of the coolest is the Railway Station. Built in 1904 out of Otago stone (dark grey) and Oamaru stone (white). Not too many real trains come down this way any more - not when plane tickets are like $39 each.

So now the station houses a special tourist railway that goes out through the Taieri Gorge. People come from all around the world to ride these trains. The offer a few different trips.

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The station is very cool.

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The old Dunedin prison from 1896

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And another cool building from the same vintage

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Then we left Dunedin, and headed down to Invercargill- via the Southern Scenic Route.

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We stopped in a few small towns on the way, and checked out the Op Shops.

Check out my superb $2 score! Signed Kamahl vinyl!

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I also picked up this superb NZ made, 100% wool horsemans coat in Oamaru the other day. $25! A new coat like this would be like $600.

I have been looking staunch all around central Otago for a few days ....

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Here’s Nugget Point!

A very cool lighthouse up on a very steep point. It’s about 1km walk out to the lighthouse from the carpark.

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You’d have to question the sanity of whoever built this thing up here! It’s miles from anywhere .. and the only way to get things out here is along a thin mountainside track.

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On the way back, we saw 3 seals having a great old time in a rock pool down by the water.

If you look closely you can see the 3rd one doing backstroke under the water ...

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In NZ, a lot of the tourists hire mini-vans, like the JUCY ones I mentioned before. Then they sleep in the back of them.

This one is from a different company, they paint them up all funky. Each one is different.

I’ve seen this Mystery Machine one heaps, it’s been doing the same trip as us it seems.

“Raaaaaaggggyyyy!!”

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Then we headed to Curio Bay to see if we could stalk some rare Yellow Eyed Penguins - the rarest penguin on the planet.

They like to come up around 3-5pm and nest up on land. We were there around 3 so thought we might be in luck ...

First we hit up the left side of the point ...

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While the wild scenery was awesome ... alas ... no penguins to be seen.

Then we hit the right side of the point.

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Again ... nobody home.

But then ...

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No .. just a sign. Lol

No penguins today.

If we had been lucky enough to see them, this is what we would have seen. A little cute guy!

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But the quest for wildlife wasn’t over yet!

Off to the Waipapa Lighthouse to look for seals!

In 1881 a passenger steamship called the Tararua hit the rocks of this point, with 131 of her 151 passengers being lost.

In response, this lighthouse was built in 1884. It’s made of NZ native kauri and totara timbers. Up until the 1970s it was manned by lighthouse keepers who lived in a house nearby. It’s fully automatic now.

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It was starting to get dark .. it looked like our wildlife tracking day was going to come up empty handed.

But then .. right next to the lighthouse ...

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A big sea lion - about 5ft long I guess.

He was a big boy.

He was miles from the water. Probably at least a 100 metres. That’s a long way to walk - when you have no legs ...

They say to keep 10 metres (30ft) away from them, as they can chase you and bite you!

So, cool that we got to see some wildlife after all!

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It’s not Speedo weather, that’s for sure ...

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Here we go!

A list of all the locations used for the LOTR movies.

We will be in the Fiordland area tomorrow, and then the Southern Lakes area, to give you an idea. Quite a few locations around there.

https://www.newzealand.com/int/feature/the-lord-of-the-rings-trilogy-filming-locations/

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Today we drove down to Bluff, to catch up with our old buddy Marcus and his lovely wife Vanessa, and have some world famous Bluff oysters!

Bluff is literally, the end of the road.

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We caught up with Marcus and Vanessa, and had a grand tour of the town. This took around 5 minutes. Bluff isn’t a big place.

Then we hit the end of the line ...

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Down at the end of the line, there’s a restaurant called Oyster Cove, so we went for lunch.

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Bluff oysters are only found in the Foveaux Straight (between Bluff and Stewart Island) and Chile! They are a great delicacy in NZ. They’re only farmed March-August and fetch good prices. There are other oyster areas around NZ but none hold the reverence of the Bluffies!

You can have them lots of different ways, but today was fried oyster day! Delicious!!

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Out in the carpark, there is a huge chain that holds Stewart Island to the South Island.
Well, it doesn’t really ... but that what we tell all the tourists. Marcus is looking splendid in his tweed wool suit and UGG boots. Ideal Bluff winter wear!

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Bluff is a sea town. Lots of oyster boats, and there is a container port there.

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Bluff is the sort of place where you don’t live there unless you work there, or you can’t afford to move out. Haha. The houses there start from like $50,000 - which as far as NZ goes is the cheapest you’ll ever find a house. That actually has walls.

These houses are right in the Main Street. They require a little bit of maintenance...
This is a very typical NZ villa design from 1900-1920s period. You see this style all over NZ. Generally in better condition ...

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So that’s Bluff!

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Thanks for that.

I’ve sold Brad a couple of pins over the years. Revenge from Mars was one of them.

I went and saw Aaron today ... will post up pics soon!

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Today’s trip ... up to Te Anau!

Tea. Ah - now.

Today we are taking the scenic coastal route.

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Before we left Invercargill, we stopped at the Bach cafe (an Auckland cafe somehow transplanted in the middle of Invercargill..) and got coffees and tried out their cheese roll.

Cheese Rolls are a Southland thing. Everyone says their cheese roll is the best. At the end of the day, it’s really a cheese toasted sandwich, with some things added in.

This one was nice! Lots of cheese and some herby/onion things happening.

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First stop, Riverton. Small town along side a river. There’s a surf beach nearby.

There was a thick fog all the way up past Riverton. The photo doesn’t really show it very well, but I’d guess total visibility would have been 100-150 metres max.

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Here’s the town “thing” ... the Giant Paua shell! Paua are a shellfish, like abalone. Except the actual Paua are black.

Lots of NZ towns have their “thing”. Always cool to check them out. This one has actual real Paua shell all over it.

You can see the fog all around it.

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Here’s a NZ Paua (pa - waa) shell, with sliced up Paua from inside. Pretty colours on the shell!

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On to Colac bay, on the scenic coastal route.

What a stunning beach.

And what a stunning winters day, now the fog has cleared away. Still chilly, but lovely.

Colacs bay is a surfing beach, up the far end. These pics are taken in the middle of the beach. The sand is iron sand, and it is rippled by the surf. So cool.

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The whole top of the beach is 2ft deep in the coolest stones you’ll see. The tide pushes them up to the road. In fact, the road is closed now because the tide has pushed the rocks right over the road!

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Next up is Cozy Nook!

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It’s a little bay, protected by some little islands. So the sea crashes on the islands, and the bay is pretty calm.

There were 3 little cottages there.

So cool.

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On to Monkey Island.

There are no monkeys there.

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Cool sand patterns in the iron sand ...

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The Maori used to use the Island as a lookout for whales, then go and somehow catch them for dinner. That’d be an impressive effort in a canoe!

In fact, there was a whales carcass on the beach today. If a whale dies on the beach, the local Maori take the jawbone (as is tradition) and the whale is left to let nature take its course.

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The Island is only accessible at low tide, as we had today when we were there.

It really was a cool place.

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Click below for panoramic view!

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Next up - Gemstone Beach!

The neighbour had an interesting sign on the gate ....

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This beach generally has all sorts of rocks all over it, including quartz, jasper and garnet.

However, when we were there, all the rocks were covered with sand. Evidently it can be either all rocks, or all sand, depending on the tides.

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Danni is a rock hound ... she soon sniffed out some sweet ones in the creek that was flowing down onto the beach.

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Again .. a fantastic place to be.

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McCrackens Rest - next stop, Antarctica.

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Just north of Tuatapere is the Clifden suspension bridge.

Opened in 1899, it was in service as the main road bridge until the 1970s, when a new concrete bridge was built nearby.

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Who wouldn’t want to fill up at this awesomely named gas station?

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Last stop for the day - a pinball treat!

I’d talked some years back to Aaron, whos family owns a large motor camp down in Fiordland. He’d said he had some pinballs and some Arcades, so we just dropped on in to check them out!

Aaron was very accommodating and showed us his stash. As can happen, Aaron has a number of other things to do so the machines are awaiting restoration.

There were some cool ones, and it was sweet to be able to have a good look around!

Thanks Aaron!

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Yep!

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Ouch!

I would still vote F14 as one of the better pinball machines ever made. For a number of reasons. Fun fun fun!

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You seen one picture of a beer glass, you seen them all.

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Today’s trip - one of the highlights!

Maybe of all my travels!

We drove up from Te Anau to the Milford Sound.

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The “I”s on the road map indicate a traffic condition - in this case, black ice on the road covered with loose gravel. It was pretty cold out there today!

The journey is only 130km - but the final part is some pretty tricky driving on some pretty narrow, windy roads. So it takes around 2 hours to get there, without stops.

If you want to be anal, the Milford Sound isn’t actually a “sound”. A Sound is created by river flow, whereas this was created by a glacier 1000s of years ago. So really, it should correctly be called Milford Fiord!

But it isn’t. So there.

First stop up the road, the Mirror Lakes.

If you wanted to be critical, they were more like Mirror Ponds. Haha! But they certainly are reflective! And the ducks loved them!

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The drive out to Milford Sound is pretty stunning.

With lots of places to stop, and lots of photo opportunities.

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Eventually you get to the Homer Tunnel.

Disappointingly, it’s not named after Springfield’s finest ... it’s named after the guy who discovered this area in the 1880s.

In 1935, work started on the 1.2km long tunnel.

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In true NZ style, the work was started by 5 men, with shovels and wheelbarrows! Craaaazzzy. Eventually a few more mates showed up, and they got it finished in only 18 years, opening in 1953.

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It’s a one way tunnel, with traffic lights at each end. It goes downhill on the way to Milford ... a reasonable incline.

It’s an unsealed road surface ... and water streams in from the cracks in the ceiling.

So cool.

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A few miles down the road, you reach “The Chasm”

You park in the carpark, and walk around 10 minutes to The Chasm.

We had no idea what The Chasm was - but it sounded so Heavy Metal, I needed to go see it.

You walk through some of NZs classic bush. You can see why people get lost in NZ bush - look how thick and unforgiving it is. Then it gets dark and the Kiwis come out and eat you!

Maybe.

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Then ...




THE CHASMMMMM

I’m not a guy that gets too excited about anything ... this was the first time in my life I ever saw/heard anything and just said out loud, “holy f**k...!”

As you get closer, the roar of water gets louder and louder. It truly was heavy metal like!

Then you see it. You stand on a bridge, and the water drops down under the bridge maybe 50ft through amazing water hewn rock faces. Huge boulders have cheese like holes in them from the force of the water.

Then the water drops down again, maybe another 50ft. All down a slice in the earth only a few metres wide.

Pictures just don’t do it justice ... so I shot a video. Which still doesn’t really do it justice.

Just amazing to experience.

Then we reached Milford Sound - the end of the road.

We were treated with a visit by one of NZs native parrots - the Kea!

The kea is a naughty bird - they’ll come down to see the tourists, eat their food, and wreck their cars! In the days of vinyl roofs, the keas would land on the cars and pick off the vinyl! They’ll pick at the rubbers on your windows and your wiper blades. But damn they’re cute!

We also had another Weka friend.

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Time for a cruise out though Milford Sound.

On the biggest JUCY of them all!

JUCY CRUISE!
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