The Catlins

Situated in the south eastern corner of the South Island, the Catlins is a sparsely populated area of bush (this is Kaka Point reserve)

and rugged coastline – Nugget Point here with its lighthouse.

These are the nuggets suggested by the name.

The view looking back along the coast is quite awe-inspiring.

I am always amazed at how these delicate plants can colonise the rock face.

Evidence of the strong prevailing winds in the way vegetation grows.

Bizarre attractions seem necessary these days. At the little settlement of Owaka (capital of the Catlins) is Teapotland!

We stayed at a bed & breakfast, close to the picturesque Purakaunui Falls.

They had access to a private beach for close encounters with birdlife at Long Point – pied stilts and seagulls

and hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin) chicks – still partially covered in fluffy down, they will be leaving the nest in a few weeks.

Trip South

We have just got back from a week in Christchurch, Dunedin and further south. It was a whistle stop trip to Christchurch to attend George’s wedding. The bulk of the time we were in Dunedin working on the house then managed a day seeing the sights there while we signed up new tenants. That left a day for a trip south to a part of the country we hadn’t been too – the Catlins.

Here is the lounge in the house after Noreen’s hard work cleaning it
and a view of the front showing the new roof.

Just out from Dunedin is the Orokonui Sanctuary. It’s fairly new and is a bit bare around the visitor centre

but there is some well established bush in the gullies.

We saw a few birds, including South Island Kaka

and bellbirds.
One of the tourist attractions in Dunedin is the Chinese Garden.
It appears to be made of plastic,
but the rocks are real and it is quite restful.

Another Korokoro Dam Walk

Not to be confused with “Another Damn Korokoro Walk” (see “Why I love the English language” by I. M. A. Pedant).

Anyway, today was cooler with a blustery southerly blowing. But it was dry. We walked from Cornish Street to the dam as has been reported on before. For posterity here is the group having morning tea at the destination.
We came back a different way – over the hill to Korokoro and down the slope overlooking Petone and the harbour. You get a different perspective from here. Here is the Hutt Road that skirts the harbour north of Wellington. The road bed was formed during one of the big earthquakes in the 19th century when the land was raised several metres.

This is Matui/Somes Island

and a close up

In other family news, Jenny has been in Melbourne and Tauranga and has promised us a blog post. Sam is in America with the junior football team again. You can follow their exploits on the web site, Twitter or Facebook if you have the inclination.

New Year in Christchurch

We travelled down on Friday night. The celebrations were not outlandish (I went to bed before midnight but the girls went down to Cathedral Square to see the new year in) and after a respectable lay-in we headed out to Lyttelton Harbour for a walk. This is the view from the Port Hills looking down the road to the bottom.
There is a good track from Cass Bay into the town.

This is the view of Lyttelton across the docks with the old Time Ball on the ridge.

We had afternoon tea in the town and saw some of the damage done by the earthquakes.

This brick building on one of the wharves seems to have survived unscathed

but just along the road was more evidence of the effects of recent earthquakes.

It was about a four hour walk so we felt justified in having a drink at the Governors Bay Hotel.

Sunday dawned hot with a stiff breeze. We headed out to Ashley to see Jeneane and the girls, then went to the mouth of the Ashley River for a walk along the estuary and beach. Here is a Pied Stilt.

We posed for a group photo by the river mouth

and, being English by birth, Noreen had a paddle (Meaning 7 in the link).

On Monday we went over to Akaroa and Banks Peninsula. This is another caldera (Lyttleton Harbour is also) and the road above Akaroa goes up and over the rim of the ancient volcano.

Down the other (seaward) side Le Bons Bay has a very fine, sheltered beach

and a river safe for children of all ages to play.