The first stop on our tour around the South Island was the picture perfect peninsula town of Kaikoura with its snow-capped mountain backdrop, known for its abundance of marine life thanks to the 800m deep continental shelf lying just off its shoreline.
Our first encounter was a sunrise swim with a pod of 300 or so wild dusky dolphins out at sea. Similar in experience to visiting the mountain gorillas in Rwanda, there was a real sense of interaction with the dolphins who clearly saw us as their morning's entertainment as we sang down our snorkels, rather than the other way around. A truly magnificent experience. Next was a helicopter flight over the ocean where as well as seeing the large dolphin pod from above, we were lucky enough to see one of the resident sperm whales on its brief stop at the surface before it breached the water and dived down to the depths for a long feed. Our final marine encounter was at the table with a huge array of freshly caught seafood on offer, particularly crayfish.The sauvignon blanc filled vineyards of Marlborough provided us with an introduction to
New Zealand wine as we drove north en route to the Marlborough Sounds where we attempted to complete the Queen Charlotte Track, one of New Zealand's great walks. The lush forest along the coastal ridges overlooking the sound made for a great tramp with some spectacular views, however the third and final day eluded us owing to a complete collapse in the weather. A long drive down the west coast with an overnight stop in Nelson brought us to the dramatic Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. 
At around 13km in length each, they are known for their incredible rate of descent at anything up to 5m per day, the fact that they uniquely descend into colourful forest and also the ocean being just a few kms away. As well as walking to the terminal face of both glaciers, we went helihiking on Fox which meant being dropped off halfway up the glacier by chopper and spending a few hours walking on the ice with the aid of some crampons, tackling its beautifully carved deep blue crevasses and caves.Driving further south, we reached sedate Wanaka on the shores of a lake by the same name, again with a sublime snow-capped mountain backdrop. We spent a day in the Mount Aspiring national park nearby with a superb walk to the Rob Roy glacier through a wonderful mixture of remote wilderness, high mountains, beautiful river valleys and thousands of sheep. Amusingly, the fluffy four legged population in New Zealand outnumbers the two legged variety by ten to one. Wanaka also has one of the most comfortable cinemas we've been to, set up like a living room with large sofas to sprawl out on and freshly baked giant cookies and homemade ice cream served at half time, a chance for us to catch up with several of Hollywood's finest.
Next it was down to Queenstown where we had arranged to meet up with old school friend Dev who was in New Zealand for a week and
would travel with us for a few days. Trying to cram as much as possible into our few days together, we managed to white water raft and jet boat on the Shotover River which for our enjoyment was at the highest water level for several years after some prolonged rains, wine tasting and fine dining at the nearby pinot noir filled Central Otago vineyards, a visit to some glowworm filled caves in the Fiordland area, and a day's kayaking on the incredibly remote and serene Doubtful Sound. Technically a fiord rather than a sound, Doubtful is one of the largest in 
New Zealand with rugged sheer peaks towering above the dark waters and dense forests precariously clinging to the near vertical moss-covered slopes. We were lucky to come across a group of enormous bottle nose dolphins at around 3-4m in length, and also the rare fiordland crested penguin. After a final night back in Queenstown, it was farewell to Dev after a great few days travelling together and consequently a couple of days to recover. The mountain backdrop of Queenstown was comically the first of many places around New Zealand to claim to be Mordor from Lord of the Rings. Returning to Fiordland, we made the obligatory trip to Milford Sound for a boat trip around it which true to its reputation was spectacular, particularly with so much rain having fallen the night before yielding hundreds of waterfalls down its cliff faces.Driving around the southern scenic route at the end of the South Island, we entered the enchanting
Catlins National Park, an area of rugged bays, native forests and lush farmland. Camping on the coast and looking out across the roaring Southern Ocean from Slope Point, the southern tip of New Zealand closer to the South Pole than the Equator, we were filled with excitement about our forthcoming trip to Antarctica. Furthermore, it put the fear of God into Dan about the potential for a bout of savage seasickness on some of the roughest seas on the planet. We also had the chance to see some rare hectors dolphins and yellow-eyed penguins whilst walking along the cliffs.
We turned north towards the university town of Dunedin and made the trip out to the end of the Otago Peninsula to visit a colony of Royal Albatross, the only mainland colony of any albatross species in the world. They may look like oversized seagulls but after learning about their year long trips out at sea in which time they circumnavigate the world several times, their monogamous tendencies, their 3m wingspans, their life expectancy upwards of 50 years and the fact that they can fly at up to 120km/h, we found a new level of respect for them.A long drive up the east coast and a ferry crossing to the North Island on Christmas eve took us to Wellington where we celebrated Christmas in a suitably flash restaurant. We're afraid to say that despite all your complaints about the weather back home at the moment,
the festive season in the middle of the summer just didn't feel quite right. After a visit to the Te Papa museum to see the colossal squid exhibition which houses the only intact one in the world, we headed to Tongariro National Park to walk the Tongariro alpine crossing, reputedly one of the best one-day walks in the world and again apparently home to Mordor. It was easy to see how this time though, as we traversed some spectacular lunar like volcanic terrain, active craters filled with deep red coloured rocks, steaming vents and some dazzling emerald lakes.
Placid Lake Taupo was our penultimate destination and gave Dan a chance to renew his skydiving licence after many years of not jumping which needless to say put a smile on his face. We also visited Huka Falls and one of the nearby geothermal hot spring areas known as Craters of the Moon with its steaming vents and bubbling mud pools.After trundling nearly 4,000km in our dwarf sized Toyota Starlet, we reached Auckland.
Old school friend Satyen and his girlfriend Lisa made the most unbelievable hosts, showing us the best around the city, putting on a New Year's Eve gathering to remember and taking us to Waiheke island for a tour of some of the best vineyards in New Zealand. In fact the company, food and wine at beautiful Stonyridge vineyard one lunchtime (thank you Steven) were so good that we decided to extend our stay by a week to spend some more time together. Our send off was a two night stay in a bach (pronounced batch, AKA a beachhouse) New Zealand style in the Northland with nothing but a private beach, a barbeque and a lot of beer and wine.New Zealand really is a stunning country, particularly the South Island. The scenery as we drove around was consistently jaw-dropping, utterly photogenic and the people so welcoming. To our surprise, we found Auckland to be one of the most liveable cities that we've come across with its green volcanic surroundings, beaches, wineries and most importantly the outdoors on its doorstep.
From here we fly to Chile and head straight down to the southern tip of South America to board our boat to Antarctica.
To see some more of our pictures, click on the album cover below.
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| New Zealand |
With love,
Susie and Dan xx
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