New Zealand - Catlins to Fiordlands

We couldn't get any further away from home, unless we started swimming

Paul, with his fiercest 'intrepid explorer' pose

And me, with mine..

We went to Curio Bay, which has a petrified forest.  170 million years ago, heavy rain washed volcanic ash downstream, swamping this forest.  The high silca content turned the trees to stone within months.  No mention of a basilisk anywhere!

Paul was very impressed with it..

Although at dusk, the beach had other visitors

This is the Yellow-Eyed Penguin, which is quite rare and only in this region of the world

Geronimo!

Like all pengiuns, rocks aren't really their medium

So they amused us with their comical walking and climbing

They would get out of the sea, after a hard day's fishing, to feed the chicks in the nest on the cliffside

And to pose for a few pictures...

They're around knee height.

And as you can see by the right fin, are closely monitored

As we left the Catlins, we stopped at McCrackers Viewpoint, where you can look across to the Cameron Mountains up the beach

And where the sea and wind, we quite unforgiving

The river downstream from Lake Manapouri and Te Anau, which is used for hydro electrc power generation

Lake Te Anau, where we stopped for a picnic

And a photo..

It was the start of the Fiordlands, so we were expecting something good..

New Zealand - Otago, Nugget Point & Surat Bay

Otago is a pretty peninsula a stone's throw away from Dunedin

With dramatic cliffs

With allsorts of birds nesting, like these Spotted Shags

It's formed from the remnants of an ancient volcano

Which means you can go up the cliff road and see both sides of the peninsula, with impressive sights

Afterwards, we went further west to Nugget Point, a set of cliffs jutting out into the sea

These rocks meant a lighthouse being erected here in 1870, it taking the lives of many sailors on smaller craft

Seals can be seen from the cliffs

Further west again, we went for a river walk, only accesible at low tide

And then went to Surat Bay, where not all the rocky looking lumps were actually rocks...

There are numerous sealions along the beach, who come up to bathe and sleep....

They can get quite big, so you have to keep your distance.  This one had loads of scars on itself

Next we went to see some waterfalls.  It had rainned all day the day before, so they were gushing!  This is Purakaunui

This is Matai Falls

This is also Matai Falls

And this is McLean Falls

New Zealand - Dunedin

On the way to Dunedin you come to Moeraki, where there are huge boulders just lying on the beach

They're not just rocks, washed downriver and rounded, as I thought

They're made when sediments under mud have the porus parts fills in by minerals, which leach (diffuse) in, slowly over millions of years.  It starts very small, growing to marble size and ones like this take around 4-5 million years to develop!  The cracks here are when the boulder cracks and dolomite or calcium fills in and hardens.

As coastal erosion continues, they drop out of the mud, onto the beach

Further inland near our camping spot, we went on a tramp up a hillside in a gorge, where we could see out to sea

We sat up on an exposed rock enjoying the sun and the view

The next day we went to Dunedin, which is proud to have Scottish heritage, or so they tell us

The train station, built in 1906, has a Flemish Rennaissance design

Both inside and out

Though obviously Victorian in parts

Made from 2 type of local stone

Mmm!

The courthouse looks very impressive too

With good detail...

A lot of the settlers in the area, arrived from Portsmouth and Edinburgh

St Paul's Cathedral

Robert Burns, the poet is celebrated here.  His nephew was one of the first settlers here, and a reverend

Town Hall in the Octagonal Centre

Local theatre

The Presbytarian First Church, which looked a bit like a rocket from some angles..

Lots of bits pointing upwards..  did no one tell them He is all around, not just up there......

And the local hall named after Mr Burns (not Montgomery)

Inside the First Church

Dunedin, as seen from the Otago Peninsula, opposite