06:30.

We’re up and packing, ready for the five hour plus drive to Milford Sound this morning. The beautiful weather we had yesterday has given way to cooler temperatures and light showers of rain. Hopefully it won’t cramp our style too much.

12:10.

Despite the fact that it rained heavily nearly all the way to Gore  we had a very good run. Dawn did brilliantly coping with the unfamiliar roads and our car regularly disappearing in the spray from numerous heavy good vehicles heading towards Dunedin. This was passing Milton, a town we made a mistake of stopping at in the other direction!

At Gore we stopped for coffee and had a brief look at what looks like a really interesting little town. It has some substantial old buildings with a bit of history.

Once off Highway 1, the weather brightened up and the roads were both drier and quieter, giving us a great run as far as Lumsden, where I spotted this bit of railway history. The railway’s long gone, but the town has preserved the old road/rail bridge. These used to be common on the South Island, but only two remain. I remember travelling over several 20 years ago on the West Coast.

We’re now taking a break in Te Anau before heading on up to Milford Sound. We may be gone some time…

09:10.

This morning we’re travelling on the Taieri Gorge railway, a tourist line that runs from Dunedin to Pukerangi. We’re travelling on some venerable old coaches hauled by a pair of equally antique Mitsubishi built diesels. Expect pictures as & when…

14:20.

We’ve just arrived back after a fantastic trip. Needless to say there’s no phone reception where we’ve been.

The Trans-alpine may be considered one of the world’s great train journeys, but I have to say, in my opinion this equals if not tops it. The Taieri Gorge is simply stunning and the railway’s a real feat of engineering. Here’s the train at the head of the line after the pair of Mitsubishis had run round. These locos were built for NZR in 1968-69 and are wearing well!

This is a small selection of pictures from the route.

The weather was chilly before we set off this morning but it’s certainly warmed up – as you can see from the pictures. I’ve gone from a fleece to suntan lotion and a singlet.

22:35

This is a late night for us! We’ve just got back to our Airbnb after spending the past few hours at Sandfly Bay, looking for Yellow Eyed Penguins. We managed to observe two pairs, but by sunset (when we had to leave) no more had come ashore. Still, it was a great experience as the bay is beautiful. I’ll add some pictures as soon as I can. Tomorrow we’re on the move again – and with an early start too, as we’ve got to get across the South Island to Fjordland in time for an overnight cruise on Milford Sound. This means tomorrows blog may be a bit intermittent. It’s a five-hour plus drive, so tomorrow my role is to keep the driver (Dawn) happy!

It’s a sunny but not too warm day here in Dunedin and we’re off exploring to Otago peninsular, so expect a few updates and pictures during the day – and (if we’re lucky) some penguin pictures…

Out first call was to Port Chalmers via the hills around Mt Cargill. The views across the bay were stunning and well worth the drive. The only thing you can’t tell from the pictures is just how windy it’s been today.

Port Chalmers is only a small place, but it’s a busy deepwater port that boasts a container terminal as well as a general port. When we visited the cruise ship ‘Viking Orion’ was present as well as the Hamburg Sud container ship ‘Rio De Janeiro’.

Port Chalmers has an older claim to fame. On November 19th 1910 it was from here that Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his ill-fated expedition sailed for the Antarctic, never to be seen alive again…

14:17.

After visiting Port Chalmers we’ve just walked up Baldwin St, which has the distinction of being the world’s steepest residential street. Over the 161.2 metre length of the top section it climbs a vertical height of 47.22 metres, and average gradient of 1 in 3.41 but at its steepest it’s 1 in 2.86!

Over the years it’s attracted tourists and those who want to rise to its challenges – hence these commemorative plaques at the top.

Dawn’s reaction on reaching the top said it all…

Now we’re having a quick drink at the railway station which really is a superb looking building and the most Southerly railway station on the planet since the service to Invercargill was withdrawn in 2002.

16:12.

The drive out along the Otago peninsula to the Waiwhakaheke Seabird Lookout was beautiful. For much of the way the winding road’s been built right on the edge of the sea, which makes for some interesting driving conditions when it’s as windy as today and the sea comes over onto the road! Sadly, we didn’t see any Albatrosses when we got there – or penguins, just lots of Gulls, Gannets and seals. However, on the way back we did see something just as rare and equally endangered. These old tram bodies…

I’ve a favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading these blogs, please consider clicking on an advert – or two! You don’t have to buy anything, honest! The clicks just help me cover the cost of running this blog. Many thanks, Paul

08:55

We’re on the move again today, this time heading across to the East Coast and the three and a half hour drive to Dunedin, where we’ll be based for three nights, giving us chance to explore the area and also to travel on the Taieri Gorge railway. As usual on this trip, we’d liked to have stayed longer where we are, but we always knew this was going to be a bit of a whirlwind tour! The good news is that yesterday’s rain has cleared, so we’ve been greeted by a beautiful sunny morning.

Here’s our nippy little hire care and AirBnB these past two nights.

Well, we didn’t get far. We were passing the national toy and transport museum and couldn’t resist. My God, it’s an Aladdin’s cave of memories like this!

15:12.

We’ve stopped for a break at a place called Milton, back on our old friend highway 1. The road from Wanaka’s been really interesting. There’s a collection of quaint ‘One horse’ towns (mostly boasting Scottish names). The area’s also the fruit bowl of Otago. I’ve lost count of the number of fruit farms we’ve passed. The road’s been incredibly winding and very busy. Dawn says it’s also had the worst standard of driving too! She’s been complaining about the sheer number of driver’s tailgating her. Another thing we’ve noticed is the amount of classic cars we’ve seen, like these two specimens.

17:00.

Made it! I never realised just how hilly Dunedin is. Here’s the view from our AirBnB..

22:04.

We’ve spent the last of the afternoon/evening exploring Dunedin, which seems like a really interesting city. I love some of the architecture here – especially the railway station.

I’ll blog more about Dunedin tomorrow, when we’ve had chance to explore some more…

08:30

We’ve lucked out with the weather again. After an entertaining morning having breakfast at the backpackers and people-watching (more of which later) we’re packing the car in the rain.

Low cloud surrounds the mountains at the moment and the forecast isn’t great – so we’re just going to have to play it by ear today. Our plan was to walk to the base of the glacier (well, as close to the base as you’re allowed nowadays) before heading off towards Fox glacier and some of the lakes. We’ll have to see..

Here’s how the glacier looked yesterday…

11:56

Our luck held! The shower passed so by the time we got out to walk to the base of the glacier the clouds had cleared and the glacier was bathed in sunshine. As we walked up the path to get to the base if the glacier I was shocked by how much it had retreated since I heli-hiked on it in 1999. Here’s a rather sobering example. This selfie with the glacier in the background? In 1999 we’d have been buried at least 50m BELOW the glacier that you can now see high up the mountain behind us.

Here’s another view from yesterday. On my last visit the glacier extended as far as the rubble wall across the bottom of the valley.

Here’s how it looked on my last visit in February, 1999. To give you an impression of scale, you can see a group of people stood on the glacier on the top right of this picture.

So, next time some idiot tells you that Man-made climate change is a fiction and the earth’s cooling really, kick ’em where it hurts. This is the reality of what we’re doing to our planet…

09:00

We’re on the move again today after two lovely nights staying up in the hills near Mt Lydon at this gorgeous Airbnb owned by Stephanie, who’s shared this wonderful space with us.

Now we’re beginning the trip down to Christchurch, stopping off on the way, so expect some blogging and pictures later…

11:50

We’re talking a break in Cheviot, a small town on highway one after driving across some pretty rugged countryside to get here. There’s not much here apart from a few shops and cafe’s – although it does have a library and school. The place seems to make it’s living as a pit stop for travellers heading to/from Christchurch.

21:55

We’re now hunkered down in our new Airbnb in Christchurch, where we’ll be staying for the next couple of nights. It’s comfortable (and suburban, only 20 mins walk from the city centre) but it’s certainly not as amazing as where we’ve just come from. That said, Christchurch itself is a bit of an eye-opener. I’ve never ever been to a city where 80% of the city centre has been flattened by earthquakes before. I was here 20 years ago but there’s nothing I recognise apart from the shattered remains of the cathedral. Oh – and the trams. It’s a very sobering experience, looking around at all the new buildings, the few old ones that have been rebuilt, and others that are awaiting their turn. Then there’s all the open spaces that used to be buildings but are now parks – or car parks. Christchurch was hit twice, in September 2010 and again in February 2011, the latter earthquake killed a total of 185 people, which seems miraculous when you consider the scenes of destruction.

Tram 1888 passes all the new buildings on Oxford Terrace, with the Avon river to the right. 

The driver of tram 178 changes the points behind him as the vehicle prepares to head for the tramshed at the end of the day. The tramway runs through the ‘Cathedral Junction’ shopping centre.

The remains of Christchurch cathedral, with the base of the spire in the foreground.