Something like this...

After 5324km (3300 miles) we are back home. On a map, the trip looked something like this...

The original intention was to go down the west coast from Grey Mouth to Fox Glacier and then to Queenstown. As mentioned previously because a bridge was washed out by the storm we had to loop back from Hokitika over the Lewis Pass, back to Christchurch and across country to Queenstown. (The second bit is actually quite a nice drive). This added 350km to the trip and meant we didn't see Fox Glacier.

Most of the driving was easy. There were a few twisty bits most days but nothing like getting around Kenepuru Sound.
Buried under the label marked L above are the Marlborough sounds, a very complex area of inlets and islands. One of them is Kenepuru Sound. We stayed at the place marked B in the map below - Hopewell BBH, I would recommend it to anyone.  If you ask Google for driving instructions it refuses. It does work if you ask for a cycling route. It is 72km (45m) of twisty, windy road the first half is sealed and the equally twisty, windy second half is largely gravel. We drove this. It took 3 hours each way. Don't do this. Take a water taxi.

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Fishin

Today we went fishing at Hopewell which is a cool place that we had to drive 3 hours down a windy road to get to. Instead of taking a five minute boat ride. I caught a snapper and kahawai and Dad just caught a snapper. Here is us in the boat.


This is before I caught the kahawai. Emma and her friend got bored and ran off before we had even caught anything! As well as the fish I caught 2 sticks and some coral.

Zak

Marine life

The main reason for choosing Akaroa as our next destination was to go swimming with the dolphins. The dolphins here are the Hectors dolphins, which are the smallest of the dolphins. They have a good success rates on their swims and after failing to swim at Paihia last year, I wanted to make sure we had the best chance of succeeding. The manager and boat captain were a little unsure of letting me go when they saw the arm brace, but they were persuaded. And we did succeed. Photos will have to follow once I've downloaded them. We were in the water for about forty minutes because the small pod we swam with were not that sure and swam off and came back many times. They got quite close, but were maybe not as interactive as I'd hoped. We were thankful for the thick wetsuits provided, or in the case of the kids, two wetsuits!

After completing the swim, we headed north again to Kaikoura. This time for whale watching the following day. With a 7:15 check in for the whale watch, we were faster getting packed up than ever before. The weather was horrendous. We almost didn't go. But in the end decided to. Emma felt sea sick , but the rest of us were fine, but very wet by the end. We saw one sperm whale on the surface and then he dove down.




But we also saw more albatross than at the Dunedin albatross colony, a few seals playing, and a pod of a couple of hundred dusky dolphins. They were having a fantastic time leaping about in the sea. I thought briefly, we should have done the dolphin swim here - but then the tour guide told us to try and spot the babies they had recently had, and since baby dolphins means no swimming, I was ok with our choice.




After changing out of our damp clothes, we headed to hopewell lodge in kenepuru sounds. We had decided to drive around the sound, a long windy road which made for a very long day considering we got up at 6. But it's great to be here. Subject of the next blog maybe...

Cathy

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On to Christchurch.

Continuing north, our first stop was Moeraki to check out the unusual spherical boulders. I still don't get why they are so round! From the description given for the process which formed them I couldn't see why they would be as close to perfect spheres as they are...

Next was Oamaru. They have a bit of an 'Old Town' quarter with lots of craft places and souvenirs and a fairly cool Steam Punk museum and workshop. Emma and Cathy took a short ride in a horse drawn carriage.

Our destination for the night was Christchurch where our only plans were to visit the Antarctic Centre the following morning. Christchurch airport is the jump off point for the US, New Zealand and Italian presence in Antarctica. A couple of Hercules aircraft with skis fitted were parked outside hangers just across the road from the Antarctic Centre. The centre has static and AV displays about all aspects of the operations, wildlife and history. We watched their penguins being fed, there was a 4D movie (3D plus some motion and other effects) and we had a ride in a Hagglund, a tracked, articulated vehicle for use on ice and snow. In their storm simulator we braved -8C with lots of wind noise but not much actual wind. Zak had fun on the ice slide.



I ate too much lunch in the cafeteria so Cathy had to do most of the driving in the afternoon on our way to Akaroa. The sunset was...



BB

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of Chocolate, Albatrosses and Steep roads.

Our first afternoon in Dunedin was taken up by Cathy's trip to get her cast removed, X-rayed and checked out. Zak, Emma and I cruised off to a park to wait, had a swing. I took out the map to see where the next days attractions were. Looking at the map, admiring a big green strip, thinking that it would have a bunch of great parks etc but on driving thought it realized it is green space because it is just too steep to be anything else!

The first stop on Saturday morning was Cadbury World. There are static presentations about the history of the company, making chocolate, products and advertising and a bit of a tour. Unfortunately, the factory wasn't running so we didn't get to tour through it. We were given a few chocolate bars and brought some more to ensure we had snacks for the next few weeks. (I give it 10 days tops before it is all gone. We'd halved it in the first two).

Walking back toward our motel we stopped in to the Museum for a quick look. We headed toward the nature section and checked out bits about seals, penguins and birds which we have seen on our travels. They also have a butterfly aviary with hundreds of tropical butterflies. It was about 30C in here - a nice change from outside. All of us had butterflies land on us while there but Emma had one on her finger for the whole time! They don't breed the butterflies - the chrysalises come by mail from South America.



The albatross colony on the peninsula was our next stop. They had great presentations about their life, the colony and the threats and dangers that are causing ongoing reduction in the numbers of albatross around the world. After that we walked up to the viewing platform to see a few birds nesting. They sat. Occasionally, one got up and changed his position and then sat again. One we could see was just resting rather than nesting and we did get to see him spread his wings, rise off the ground and disappear down the slope out of view.



Back in town, we visited Baldwin Street which, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the steepest street in the world. Zak, Emma and I tromped to the top of the hill and released a dozen giant jaffas however it didn't appear that they survived the trip as they got up some significant speed, bounced high into the air and shattered on returning to the road or bounced off the side never to be found.

We had dinner with my cousin Giselle and her partner Dave. We weren't exactly sure how long it had been since Giselle and I last met, somewhere more than 15 years... She cooked us Thai Chicken curry and we chatted about all sorts of things. After complaining that the 3rd year botany text he had picked up had too many 'y's Giselle found Zak something more suitable which he has been chuckling about many times since.

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Cadbury World

I was so excited, because we were going to the Cadbury chocolate factory. Me and Zak raced around like dogs on the loose, sniffing the chocolate smelling air already wafting out of the factory. The entrance was only a few meters away. Inside we saw a giant rabbit we soon discovered was made of chocolate. Apparently there was a wire frame on the inside and the outside was covered in chocolate.





Then our tour guide came, and gave us a bag of chocolate each before sitting us down for a 7 minute movie about Cadbury. showing us how various processes and things were done, with a little history about Cadbury. In the bag there was a peppy chew, a caramel chew, a freddo frog and a chocolate fish (all Cadbury products).

The tour guide took us to another room and handed out samples of Cadbury Dairy milk (with spoons) and we watched a video on how they make Jaffas. Then she showed us the different parts of the cocoa beans. Next we went out of the building up to the top of a purple tower. Where we were instructed to scream "CHOCOLATE" at the top of our voices when a certain light went on, but stop when the light was gone. When we did one ton of milk chocolate poured out like a waterfall! We got two more chocolate samples picking out of a mini selection of cadbury chocolates (the chocolates were mini). Then Mum took photos of us in there old milk-truck before buying a large selection of extra chocolate.


By Emma

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Te Anau to the Catlins

From Te Anau we headed south though Invercargill to Bluff. It was drizzly and windy so we certainly couldn't see Stuart Island! We took some photos at the lighthouse and moved on.



Heading into the Catlins, we stopped at Waipapa Point to check out another Lighthouse and look for seals (there was only one). On the way out we got a reminder of what the local weather is usually like. The trees below are macrocarpas. Usually they grow upwards rather than sideways.


A bit further around, Zak and I braved the rain to have a look at the petrified forest. You can make out fallen trunks rising a little above the surrounding rock but not much more.



And then about 20 minutes later... Blue skies and beautiful views. This is looking north on the eastern side.



The following day we visited this disused rail tunnel.


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