Invercargill

Invercargil is a medium sized town at the southern end of the South island and is agricultural in setting and people. Lots of sheep farms and some deer farms as well. The weather has turned cold and wet so we headed for downtown and the city museum.

The museum has a great display of live Tuatara lizards. This is Henry the patriarch of the clan. Henry is 110 years old and is going strong. The Tuatara is only found in New Zealand and obviously has a very long life span. The museum has started a breeding program which has been quite successful and has allowed for some Tuatara to be given to other facilities. Jordan, what do you think? Pretty cool critter, huh?

After the museum, we took a walk in Queens park. It's a large park with a aviary, small animal area as well as gardens and a playground. The day was gloomy but the park was beautiful so all was well.

Time for another flat kids moment. They sure are having fun! Here they're playing on the lawn of the Manor B&B where we are staying. Sheep surround the house and our hosts Pat and Frank are making them feel right at home. The Manor is about 8km from Invercargill and is situated in the middle of sheep farms ( is anything not in the middle of a sheep farm down here?). Tomorrow we will head for the ferry to Stewart Island and a tour of the island. Weather looks a little shaky but we're going just the same.

The Catlins

On Monday morning we headed toward Invercargill but took the scenic route through the Catlins. The Catlins is a picturesque area of green hills dotted with sheep. Streams with nature walks abound and can be found around every corner. A 200km drive took us about 6 hours.

We took a walk down a scenic path with lots of trees with moss dripping off them and found Matai falls. It's typical of the falls and streams that are prolific in this area.

This is pretty typical of the coastline in this area. We're looking Southeast toward Antarctica since we are near the Southern most part of the South island.




We made it to the Manor ( our home for two days) Monday late afternoon and went into inverness for dinner.

Exploring Dunedin

Today (Sunday) was a cloudy, dreary day so we explored the city of Dunedin. Dunedin is called by the locals the Edinburgh of New Zealand. It's a university town (Otago University) with all the energy of youth.

The train station is typical of the architecture found in the town although it's more colorful than most of the buildings. In the late 1800's Dunedin was the major city of the South Island due to the gold found here and grass for sheep farms. It was replaced by Christchurch in the early 1900's as the major city but has remained a vibrant community.

We stopped at the Presbyterian church on the hill and took a look around. It isn't like any Presbyterian church that I've ever seen in the US.
Pastor Kirk eat your heart out!

We spent a couple of hours at the Dunedin Botanical Gardens near downtown. The Rhododendrons and Azaleas were in bloom and just beautiful. It's a large garden with several Kilometers of paved and gravel walking paths.

The final picture is of our B&B here in Dunedin. The Deacons Court is a 100 year old Victorian style house turned B&B. Our room is on the first floor to the right of the door (no climbing stairs.... yea!).
The Flat kids are enjoying the town and love the room. Our hosts Ashley and Chris are just great helping with sightseeing and dinner plans as well as directions and helpful hints.

Tonight it's off to the Speights Ale house for dinner and then tomorrow a 200Km drive to Invercargill.
More from there.

Otago penninsula

Today ( Saturday) was our first full day in Dunedin and we spent it on the Otago peninsula. The Peninsula runs 30 kilometers from the town of Dunedin to the ocean. It's a beautiful quiet area with no commercial enterprises to disturb the laid back atmosphere. Our first stop of the day was the only castle in New Zealand.

On top of the hills of the peninsula is Larnach castle built in the late 1800's by William Larnach, a prominent business man and politician. We toured the castle and the gardens and enjoyed the setting and views they afforded. As you know, last year Flat Ella went along to Scotland. This year we have three stowaways on board. Flat Ella is back again but invited her brother, flat James. and sister, flat Claranna along. So we have three flat kids to keep us company. So far they are having a great time.

The morning turned out to be gorgeous with a clear sky and calm wind. We spent about two hours walking the castle and grounds, and imagining what it would have been like at the turn of the century to live here. William called the castle his "camp" and so today the road leading up to it is named camp road. We then headed for the end of the peninsula and a nature preserve we wanted to visit.

The nature preserve is a working sheep farm that has set aside beach front with no human access and has been licensed by the government to take visitors into the preserve. We went by ATV, as seen here, and traveled non- maintained paths up and down the hills to the water. Six passengers and a driver/guide fit into this little ATV.

There is a colony of seals living on the preserve and currently there are many seal pups like this one. We were able to observe pup behavior in the wild as they nursed with mom and played in the pools of ocean water. The males will soon join the colony for the breeding season but will leave again when their job is done.

This beach is called penguin beach because it's a area of the preserve that is inhabited by yellow eyed penguins. We did see some from a long way away but since penguins are shy we couldn't get up close. The penguins use this beach to come and go to the water to feed. They live and raise their young on the sand hill on the left.



We finished the day by stopping at a garden on the way back to Dunedin. A really great day  in all respects.
We're heading back to Spreichts brewery tonight. It's the national ale and is brewed here in Dunedin. The restaurant located at the brewery serves fresh ale and great food...... so ..... back we go. Tomorrow we will walk the town of Dunedin. More tomorrow night.

Down under

Greetings from the wonderful country of New Zealand. We arrived Wednesday morning none the worse for the trip. In fact, it was easier than we had anticipated. 12 hours from San Fransisco to Auckland, a two hour layover in Auckland and a hour and a half flight to Christchurch. Then we picked up a rental car and drove for a hour and a half to the little town of Akaroa.

We drove to a little farm house about 5 kilometers from town and were met with this great view. The owners Hugh and Katherine were there to meet us and get us settled.

We had this view from our bedroom window. The hills and gardens are the most green I have ever seen. We spent many hours talking with Hugh and Katherine and Katherine made us breakfast two days and dinner last night.... lamb chops, potatoes, Asparagus and salad with cobbler for desert and a good red wine.

We walked out of the house and found Katherine feeding a orphaned lamb. Coombs farm is truly a working sheep farm with 850 acres of grazing land (steep) and 1500 head of sheep. Katherine is using a wine bottle and I inquired if wine helped the lamb grow.

Yesterday we took a two hour boat ride on Akaroa harbor. The name Akaroa means "long harbor" in Maori. The harbor is 18 miles long and was formed when the seaside wall of the volcanic caldera collapsed allowing the sea to rush in. We saw some Hector Dolphins which are native to this area . They are about 4 feet in length making them much smaller than the Dolphins we see in the states.
What a great way to spend a afternoon.

After the harbor boat ride, we drove to the rim of the caldera some 2500 feet above the harbor. As you can see the view was spectacular. The entire area was formed from erupting volcanoes some 6 million years ago and time has only enhanced the beauty of the place.

Today we left Akaroa and headed for Dunedin about 400 kilometers south. We were driving down a really nice asphalt road, came around a corner and were met with a herd of sheep in the middle of the road. The Shepard ( a woman) and her dogs were driving the sheep down the road. We stopped the car and waited while they moved past surrounding the car as they went.

Along the way we stopped to see some man made stones. These are large ( about 5 feet in diameter) and hollow. They are thought to have been used as ballast in a sailing vessel that was shipwrecked here many years ago... but no one really knows for sure. Tonight we are a Deacons court B&B in Dunedin. We'll be here two days exploring the area before moving on. All for now... Time for a pint and fish and chips!