South Island Sojourn

We spent two weeks over Xmas and the New Year in the south island. The main purpose of the trip was to walk the Kepler and Routeburn tracks. In the end we walked neither and instead ended visiting the Catlins area, Oamaru, Manapouri, Queenstown and then Wanaka.

Many NZ towns to be frank, are a bit dreary, but Oamaru is a bit of a gem. In the old part of the town many buildings are constructed from stone, which is pretty unusual in this part of the world and gives the place a lot of charm and character.

The Catlins area is renowned for its waterfalls. Unfortunately, the area was suffering from a drought when we were there and said waterfalls were a little underwhelming. While in the area we also visited Nugget Point, Cathedral Caves and the Moeraki Boulders. The boulders were a bit of a disappointment, but the other two were just great and come highly recommended.

I have posted loads of stuff on Te Anau and Queenstown in the past, so will give it a rest this time around.

Wanaka is a very nice place with a much more chilled feel than Queenstown, than its much bigger and brasher neighbour. The town also boasts, what I reckon, is the best cinema in New Zealand, and quite possibly anywhere, the appropriately named Cinema Paradiso.

Overall, we enjoyed the trip but would think twice about going over the Xmas period again, as it was way too busy for my liking.

 Lake Dunstan, on the way to Oamaru.

 Oamaru.

 Steampunk HQ in Oamaru.

 Moeraki Boulders. They look OK in the picture, but where a bit underwhelming in reality.

 Nugget Point.

 Pūrākaunui Falls

Cathedral Caves. These are only accessible for a couple of hours at low tide and are great fun if you don't mind getting a bit wet.

 Ditto.

 Lake Marian in the distance.

 On the way to Lake Marian.

This and the next couple were taken on walk up to Roy's peak near Wanaka. It was a merciless slog, but well worth it.

It rained quite a lot. This was taken at Manapouri.