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From Dunedin we drove down to Invercargill and
headed to Bluff, where we were going to go over to Stewart Island.
However, the trips to try and see the Kiwi birds on the island were full
and it was a lot of money not only just to get there, but also to stay for
a night, so we just chilled out in Invercargill for a couple of days.
The south-east coast has a beautiful coastal
route called the "Catlins." Here we visited the southern most point of
New Zealand at Slope Point, stopped at Porpoise Bay, where we saw Hectors
Dolphins surfing the waves and Curio Bay where, at low-tide, you can see a
180 million year old fossil forest. Hectors dolphins are the smallest and
rarest dolphins in the world and to see a pod of them feeding and playing
in the waves was a very special moment.
Our second day along the Catlins we went to
Cannibal Bay, Nugget Point and Roaring Bay. Cannibal Bay is so called as
Captain Cook found human remains on the cliffs here when he first landed.
Nugget Point is home to Hookers Sealions, Fur Seals and Elephant Seals who
all play in the huge rock pools that are found in the "nuggets" of land,
again at low-tide. Roaring Bay is home to one of the world's rarest
penguins, the Yellow-Eyed Penguin, which we were lucky enough to see
coming ashore just after dusk.
We were heading up to Oamaru to see the Blue
Penguins, the world's smallest penguin, but Angela decided she had to go
and visit the Cadbury Factory in Dunedin as we hadn't been there the
previous week! What's so special about it, particularly as we have the
original one just outside Birmingham? In the UK Cadburys use powdered
milk in their chocolate, whereas in New Zealand they really do use a glass
and a half of full cream milk in every 200 grams of chocolate and you
really can taste the difference! It is awesome, so much so we posted some
home to our family and sent some "Dairy Milk Rough Coconut" home for
ourselves, which is heaven in a chocolate bar!
The Blue Penguin colony in Oamaru was
fantastic. We saw just over one hundred of them arrive home at dusk.
They swim around twenty-five kilometres out to sea each day to feed, then
at dusk they gather about five hundred metres offshore and form "rafts" to
swim back to land. You can see these rafts coming from way out as dark
shapes under the water and within about twenty metres of the shoreline
they start to "porpoise" through the waves and then appear to fly onto the
shore. They then make their way up the embankment and again gather
together to cross the road to head to their colony for the night. The
quacks the adults make as they arrive on shore and the chirps the
awaiting youngsters make as they chase the parents around trying to find
their own parents is hysterical. These youngsters will literally trip the
adults up, jump on them and physically restrain them to try and get food
from them, which makes for an incredible spectacle.
Next was our stop in Timaru for the
long-awaited Natal Sharks versus Canterbury Crusaders, Super 14s match.
We checked into our hotel, only to find that we are staying at the same
hotel, on the same floor, as the Crusaders! This is not a big or flashy
hotel by the way. Still with players like Ritchie McCaw, Dan Carter, Rico
Gear, Reuben Thorne, Chris Jack, Aaron Mauger and Leon MacDonald staying
here we will put up with it! (For those of you who haven't a clue about
rugby, these guys play for the All Blacks and are some of the best rugby
players in the world!)
It was quite strange sitting in the bar
watching the rugby and seeing these world-famous rugby players wander back
and forth as they have to eat every two hours! Angela managed to get a
photo with Chris Jack and Dan Carter. Dan Carter is the pin-up boy of New
Zealand rugby, like Jonny Wilkinson was for England! He pretty much
defeated the British and Irish Lions single handed!
So the results didn't go our way at all the
weekend of 25 February 2006!
The Sharks were leading by thirteen points and
then went down 22-20! However, it was an awesome game and we got to meet
the Sharks players after the game. England were apparently much worse
than Scotland and lost the Calcutta Cup! Northampton Saints never got out
of bed by the sounds of it and were humiliated by London Irish. On the
bright side, the Welsh got spanked by the Irish!
We headed up to the Banks Peninsular for four
days rest before heading to Christchurch for more Super 14s rugby. On the
way we called into Barrys Bay Cheese Factory where we indulged in some of
their fare which included Venison Pepperoni, five year old mature cheddar
and Chilli Cheese. Akaroa, on the Banks Peninsular, was idyllic, a
volcanic crater that has evolved into a beautiful, small harbour town.
The harbour is home to Blue Penguins, Hectors Dolphins and New Zealand Fur
Seals, which we saw on a couple of different boat cruises whilst we were
there. We also had a couple of fantastic meals down at the Harbour,
including New Zealand Green-lipped mussels, New Zealand lamb and
pan-seared Pork in black pudding, bacon and whole-grain mustard sauce.
Not all at the same time though! Also, who checks to see whether the
mussels have green lips or not!
We also had the "World Renowned" Fish and Chips
in Akaroa, from the only fish and chip shop in the town and have to say
they were delicious! It is funny here how every bakery you pass sells
"World Famous" something or other, normally pies! At this Chip Shop we
had Blue Cod and chips, cooked to order and that even means the chips, so
everything is fresh! We washed it all down with a bottle of "World
Famous" Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc which always helps!
Our last couple of days in the South Island
were spent in Christchurch where we went to the Auckland Blues versus
Canterbury Crusaders game at Jade Stadium. Again ended up staying on the
same floor, in the same hotel as the opposition! This time it was the
Auckland Blues! The Crusaders won 39-10, but despite this when the Blues
players got back to the hotel most of them socialised in the bar with the
rugby crowd that were staying there. So we managed to get a few more
photos of Angela with some of the All Blacks like Kevin Mealamu, Ali
Williams, Troy Flavell and Jo Rokocoko!
From Christchurch we flew up to Auckland for
two more nights where we just chilled out before catching our flight to
Singapore, via Hong Kong! This meant a 5:00am start, with a twelve hour
flight to Hong Kong, stopping for four hours in the airport there,
continued with a four hour flight to Singapore, landing at 11:40pm, when
we then have to still clear customs and get to the hotel!
Oh and we went back to the Champions Of The
World rugby store, with our eleven socks, to claim our prize! After a bit
of negotiating and pointing out that I really didn't need that many black
and white rugby socks I was given a free Haka t-shirt! Was it worth the
effort? Probably not, but be we had a great time doing it!
We both fell in love with New Zealand and it is
definitely high up on the "places to consider retiring to" list. If we
could earn the same money here that we do in England then it would,
without doubt, be a place to live and work, but that is not very likely.
The only down side to New Zealand is the lack of land-based mammals. If
it had half the wildlife that South Africa has then it would be a very
difficult choice between the two countries. We will be sad to leave here,
but are very much looking forward to a new Continent and another new
adventure.
Our last night in New Zealand held one last
surprise for us. As we were settling in for the night and our 4:15am
start the following morning the telephone rang. A lady with an
immediately recognisable South African accent was on the other end
and turned out to be our Bestman's sister-in-law. Dean's brother moved
out to New Zealand about three years ago and lives just outside Auckland.
So we arranged to meet up and Sean, Monica, James and Erin came and took
us up Mount Eden and then we went to a bar on the harbour-front for a
drink. This was a great way to end our last night in New Zealand, rather
than just sat in front of the television and going to bed early! |