Through Catlins to Milford Sound

The Nuggets (or was that us?)
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We headed south down the coast to drive through the Catlins on the south coast and to stop off at some places with interesting names.  After a night at Pounawea (which said quickly can result in juvenile giggles) we woke up with the urge to see Jack´s blowhole, which was only a 45 minute drive around some rough coastal roads.  We pulled up next to a deserted beach and set off through the fields following signs and trying desperately to avoid the copious amounts of sheep shit.  Lynds had opted for wearing her pink laced trainers which she´d been desperate to wear since buying them in Vietnam.  Possibly not the best choice of footwear.  Added to that the fact she´d borrowed my rudeboy hat and had her sunglasses on she looked a bit like queen Latifah´s long lost soul sister.

The walk to Jacks blow hole
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After a good hours walk along the coast where fields fall into the sea we saw the blowhole.  It wasn´t a geyser type thing as imagined but a fifty foot wide hole in the middle of a field, about 250m from the sea.  It dropped about 100ft and there was the sea.  It had just found some soft rock and eroded it´s way inland.  Suitably impressed we hiked back, and didn´t see a soul all morning that didn´t require shearing.

Queen Latifah´s long lost soul sister

Cute but stinky
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Next on the days agenda was a jaunt to Nuggets Point, a lighthouse on a points and exposed outcrop overlooking some "nugget" shaped rocks in the sea (I always thought a nugget had no discernable shape but I guess it made a better name than ´sea rocks´).  We wound our way higher and higher up a cliff face with a sheer drop to our right, which kept Lynds quiet for a bit.  When we eventually reached the top and had some lunch, we headed for the point.  How this walk had not been condemned by people who know better I have no idea.  You walk along a three foot wide path with a good 200 ft drop on one side and no rail or anything.  If you slipped, you wouldn´t bounce many times before becoming seal food on the rocks below.

"Get your foot down if you want lamb for tea"
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After twenty minutes of slow and wobbly walking you find that the  right hand side of the path has disappeared and you are walking along a very windy peak with certain death on both sides.  Thankfully at this point someone had decided that a handrail might be useful.  So we reached the end looking wind-swept and white knuckled to check out the nuggets, and great as they were I think this trip was definately about the journey and not the destination.

On the way down there was a hide for trying to spot Yellow Eyed penguins, and with luck going our way we thought we´d chance our arm again.  And again as soon as we turned up a couple emerged from the sea and waddled up the banking next to us.  That means we have now seen three out of three thousand left, 0.1% of the entire population!!  Bill Oddie has nothing on us!

The best one of a hundered photos !
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Having sated our need for penguins (a need which we do both realise is a bit sad before you start wondering for our mental health) we headed into Fiordland in our van that now definately had the aroma of a sheep pen.  We tipped up in Te Anau as the sun was setting but we saw enough to see that it was a beautiful little town on the side of a lake.  WIth a trip booked for the following day on Milford Sound we headed out in search of food, and found a place that did a belting shoulder of lamb with all the trimmings.  So good we went back again and had the same the following night.

Milford Sound
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Next day, we had a good two hour drive to get to Milford and so were on the road at the crack of dawn.  The scenery as usual in NZ was amazing, with places to stop and see this or that all over the place.  A little pond so clear you could see the big trout swimming about, and funny little black ducks that swim fully underwater and surface in the same way a rubber ducky does in the bath.  The drive got higher and pretty soon there was snow around and we were going through a dank tunnel through the top of a mountain before descending down a very twisty road to Milford.

Theres a large boat on the water if you look closely
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Once on the boat we were off, and soon had a partner for the journey.  A dusky dolphin had decided to give the passengers a treat by jumping in and out of the water and following the boat.  You could lean out of the front of the boat and be eyeball to eyeball with the cheery fellow only a metre or so away.  And he continued to follow us for half an hour, jumping in and out of the water, and generally just playing about.  We floated down towards the sea with enormous cliffs on either side, many of which had water cascading down them.  After a couple of hours we emerged at the sounds mouth to the sea, and things got a little choppy.  Needless to say, Lynds and I immediately turned green and decided that a little sit down was in order.  We got off the boat for half an hour to see an underwater observatory which showed the unique conditions under the water.

Jacks Blowhole
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All in all, the sound is the kind of place where you snap away with the camera in the sure-fire knowledge that the pictures won´t do the place justice.  So I hope my memory stands the test of time as it was a really good day.