New Zealand, South Island, July 2005
Packed the bags and went for a ten day driving trip around the New Zealand South Island. Managed to drive around 2500km, from Christchurch to Fox Glacier, down to Queenstown, across to Dunedin and back to Christchurch again. It's a pretty fantastic part of the world!
Street corner in Oamaru. This town was a highlight.

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Taken2005:07:26 13:15:43
CameraCanon EOS 20D
Focal Length16 mm
Shutter Speed1/250 sec
Aperturef/5.0
ISO100
Exp. Comp0/2
Flash Used16
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First day, we were pretty excited when we first saw snow!This was one of my favourite places in our travels. The little village in Arthur's Pass, all these tiny little shacks all puffing out smoke from their chimneys as it rained on us!The view from the lookout.
Closeup of Franz Josef glacier.There's helicopters everywhere around New Zealand.Little valley just after Franz Josef.
Lake Matheson looking towards Mt Tasman and Mt Cook. They claimed this was the "world's most photographed lake". It's a pretty big call - but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt!The trek up the glacier. It looks tougher than it is!Looking up towards the mountain. We couldn't get any further than this!
Finally found someone to take a photo of us on top of the glacier. You can see another group in the background a little further down the ice.The ice certainly wasn't flat to walk on!Looking out towards the ocean from atop the glacier.
View from the top of the glacier looking at the steps cut into the ice - this was the way down. You can see a guy at the bottom starting to walk back up the rock face on the other side.Posing at the terminal face of the glacier.Fox Glacier from a viewing point a couple of kilometres inland from the highway.
Bruce Bay is a spot just South of Fox Glacier where the road genuinely hits the Tasman.Pretty wild surf at Bruce Bay, just south of Fox Glacier.The view South-West from a particularly nice headland just South of Bruce Bay.
The view North-East from a particularly nice headland just South of Bruce Bay.There's an almost limitless number of little bright blue steams that run down from the mountains to the ocean.Looking across Lake Wanaka.
View from the foreshore of Lake Wanaka.A little place called "Roaring Megs" on the road from Wanaka to Queenstown.Looking up to The Remarkables ski area from the magic carpet.
The view from the deck at the Remarkables ski field. You can see the top of the cloud cover reaching the base of the field.View from the lake at Queenstown. (Lake Wakatipu)Half way up the Remarkables mountain range on the way to the ski field.
The view from the Skyline Gondola restaurant on Bob's Peak.Just to prove I made it up there.I did actually learn to ski!
The view from the top looking down towards Queenstown. Bit easier to see when those clouds aren't there!On the road from Te Anau to Milford Sound.Milford Sound from the shore.
A little further out on the water. Mitre Peak on the left.Just a couple of the waterfalls along the Sound.The first of a couple of seals we saw on the day.
This place impressed me more than Milford Sound. It's this little walk called "The Chasm". This is the little stream just before the Chasm - water roaring hundreds of metres below. No photo did it justice!The genuine NZ experience. From 100 to 0 in ten seconds as a flock of sheep gets shepherded somewhere. We thought it was just about all over for the ones with blue spray paint on their necks.Once you get to Dunedin you've got to drive another hour out on the Otago Peninsula. It gets pretty remote pretty quickly.
Emma searching in vain for seals or penguins or albatrosses. Anything but tonnes and tonnes and kelp!Looking back towards mainland on dusk from the Otago Peninsula.Looking north on the road from Dunedin to Christchurch. The place was packed with kelp. Possibly the worst smelling beach I've had the pleasure of visiting!
The Moeraki Boulders - these things are amazing! Near perfect spheres, most five feet in diameter at least, apparently they formed in the hills and erosion washes them out and they fall down onto the shore.Better view of these crazy boulders!Once we got to Oamaru we thought we'd have another crack at finding some pengiuns. Apparently there's a whole colony on this beach, but when we got there it was just this little guy standing on the beach, looking around. It was like he'd drawn short straw for guard duty that day.
Church of Saint Luke in Oamaru.Street corner in Oamaru. This town was a highlight.In Christchurch, a little old mill on the Avon River.
Again on the Avon. You can see fire twirlers on the other side of the river in this photo.Impressive statue in Christchurch on Cathedral Square.Inside Christchurch's Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament
View from the road out near Lyttelton, Port of Christchurch.Poser. Slowly, but surely, getting sick of photos!Nice little Corsair Bay just outside Lyttelton.
View from the plane on the way home!
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