From Bluff to the Catlins - a wildlife paradise!!

Well, what a wonderful few days we have had travelling from Bluff through the Catlins to Balclutha, a small but important town where we have found an excellent i-Site. It has good internet access and will allow us to use our gadgets to download photos.

Bluff is right down at the bottom of South Island, the ferry point for Stewart Island. We found wonderful accomodation with Roy and Robyn at the Lazy Fish and spent 24 hours exploring this very interesting town. There is a well signposted Heritage Trail which took us to tiny churches, ship graveyards, the Maritime Museum, Bluff Hill and a wonderful walk around the peninsula from Stirling Point to Lookout Point. Wonderful views, excellent information boards and stunning cliff scenery. The kelp which hangs onto the rocks is absolutely fantastic, it has evolved to swirl around the jagged rocks without being damaged.

We were very pleased to have been able to visit Bluff, somewhere that should not just be used as a transit point. Also Invercargill, the local city; it was very quiet even though it was Saturday something which we still find strange. It has a good little museum and Art Gallery and just out of town the Anderson Art Gallery which has a good collection of NZ art.

Then we started our exploration of the Catlins. This is an area stretching from Fortrose to Balclutha a distance of some 160kms. The scenery changes from green pasture to forest covered hills, open valleys to winding forest roads. It is really beautiful but its real jewel is its coast. The beaches are awesome, long stretches of golden sand completely undisturbed except by the local sealion population. On the beaches where the flax and othe native plants come down to a rocky rim before the sand the very rare yellow eyed penguins can be seen waddling up the beach at the end of a long fishing day to feed their chicks. There are headlands and wonderfully strange geology - pebbles trapped in layers of sandstone and petrified trees on Curio Bay. I can feel myself wandering off so I'll get back to the point!

We stayed in a wonderful house just outside Fortrose, The Garden House, owned by Chris and Colin McKenzie. It is the old schoolhouse from Fortrose transported to its present site by lorry (a common occurence here - they even move churches!!!). A wonderful setting protected by trees and overlooking rolling fields.

Here we are at Slope Point which is officially the southernmost point on mainland New Zealand.


As you can see we are still enjoying wonderful sunshine!! The Catlins would be good to look at on google earth and for geologists the rocks here and at nearby Waipapa Point are fascinating. Talking of Waipapa, it was here that we saw our first sealions. They lie out on the sand enjoying the sun and flicking sand onto their bodies to keep cool. They look up when you are near but generally just lie down again. They are quite dangerous though and can attack if they feel threatened. At nearby Curio Bay we marvelled at the petrified Jurassic forest and at the yellow eyed penguins.


Fogg's photos are as always brilliant!! The penguins walked quite close by and at this beach seemed unconcerned about our presence.

We then travelled on through the Catlins to Surat Bay, another massive stretch of sand on which were sunbathing up to 10 sealions. We were really pleased to watch a very large male haul himself upright and 'walk' down to the sea for a cooling swim. At Nugget Point we walked out to the lighthouse on the way spotting more penguins and fur seal pups playing in the kelp on the water's edge and sunbathing on the rocks. We have overnighted at Kaka Point and watched the sun go down on a good surfing beach. Poor Fogg, he is wildlifed out so we will just chill for the next few days on the Otago Peninsula before going to the Albatross Colony.

Best wishes from a very happyily wildlifed Phileas!!

Hi, Fogg here.

What can I say. It is continuing to be awesome. Sorry to keep using this word, commonly used over here, but that is what it has been. The sights , sounds and people are all quite wonderful. I must just mention Roy and Robyn from the Lazy Fish at Bluff again. We spent a happy evening with them chatting and drinking wine and they made us feel very welcome. Christine McKenzie was equally welcoming and she extended her hospitality and we spent a couple of times with her and husband Colin drinking coffee and talking Science and Art both of which she had considerable interest in. Their cottage 'The Garden House' was wonderful and a real joy to be in. A magnificent view from the end of the garden which I painted. I had a couple of hours off from 'Nature Watch with Kate!'

Having had the luxury of hotels in South East Asia we are now truly winging it. We have accomodation booked up for the next week but do not know where we will be after that although we have a rough idea of the area. We are aiming for the Franz Joseph Glacier which I am particularly looking forward to.

South Island is fantastic, that is not to say that North Island wasn't. It is also, but, South Island is so quiet. There are less people in South Island than there are in the whole of Auckland. Invergargill, which Phileas has mentioned appeared to be almost deserted. Wide roads with the occasional car and a few people and an interesting place with lots to do and to see. The driving in our Ford focus is however somewhat hair raising as I am more interested in the views than keeping my eyes on the road. Phileas is an amazing map reader and under her guidance and my driving we have been to some amazing places.

NZ seem to be so relaxed. I am sitting in an i site and can see our car. It is parked under a sign that says ' one hour max' Don't move it I am told, we don't have any traffic wardens here. No worries.

What with the sun tan, the greying hair and a Maori Green stone on a thong around my neck I seem to be 'Going local.'

I'm loving it here.

All love and best wishes to you all

Fogg xxxxxxxx

Posting from Fiordland

Hi to all our readers, Phileas here. We are sending this blog from a small town called Te Anau which is on the very edge of one of the most beautiful places in the world, Fiordland. We are staying just up the road in Tui View Cottage, Lake Manapauri but there are no facilities there so we have driven here to blog and e and shop. Anyway, back to the Fiords or Sounds as they are called here. For geographers out there they are technically fiords but when they were found by the early explorers they called them sounds because they didn't know what a fiord was!!!

As you can see this is a Fogg photo of a pair of bottle nose dolphins which were one of the many beautiful things that we saw on our recent overnight trip to one of the fiords, Doubtful Sound. It was so named by our favourite navigator James 'Thomas' Cook who when he saw it back in the 1770s was doubtful that he would sail out of it if he ventured in. He missed a treat but he was probably very sensible.

This is the Fiordland Navigator, the boat on which we travelled through Doubtful Sound. We had a cabin with en suite facilities and along with 70 or so other people discovered this extraordinarily beautiful place. I find it difficult to find the words to describe what we saw and most importantly the emotions that this place engendered. We will put some more photos in which will I hope give you an idea of the majesty and power of the Sound. All I can really say from a biologists point of view is that here was a unique ecosystem full of endemic plants and birds that is as it was when Cook and previously the Maori first saw it. Totally virgin rain forest full of mosses, ferns, mountain beech, rimu, kiwi and other endangered birds and just for a moment we were able to be part of it. This photo was taken when we left the boat and went out in a small tender which allowed us to really see up close the plant life which grows without soil directly onto the bare rock. If you read back to my blog on Rangitoto this will be fully explained as it is no different here on the granite to the lava of Rangitoto.

The trees hung to the sides of the fiord and created a beautiful texture of shapes and colours, a textile artist's dream ( Fogg says!!). They are virtually all evergreen and, despite living on such a difficult surface, big.

We did not see many birds as a number of them are either nocturnal or ground dwelling (flightless) but we could hear their calls which in many ways was more moving if somewhat tantalising. There is of course the issue of introduced predators such as stoats, rats etc which feed on these ground dwelling birds. This is a real problem in many parts of NZ but here as in the north small islands are being cleared of predators and endangered birds are being reintroduced.

In places the trees can no longer maintain their grip on the rock and they fall down the side of the Sound taking other trees and plants with them. This is known as a tree avalanche and it leaves great scars like this one. Fortunately this does allow us to see the regeneration process, secondary succession, taking place as mosses and then ferns start to recolonise the scar. This photo also shows the steepness of the walls of the Sound.

I am going to pass over to Fogg now so I hope that all our readers are well and send you all my best wishes.





I have to tell you that Phileas (Kate) is making a video as we go along and I (Mike / Fogg ) am making the still photos of which I have to say I am pretty proud although the ones of the Dolphin took about twenty or so goes until I got what I wanted. The time lapse of a digital camera is irritating at times like these. Second guessing the movements of a Dolphin is tricky. Doubtful Sound is the most beautiful place I have slept in. truly awe inspiring. How to cope with it artistically. I have no idea but I think I will attempt when I get back to UK.

We stopped in the Sound and all the machinery/engines on the boat including the generator were switched off and we were asked to keep quiet. No photos. Nothing. The silence at first was deafening and slowly the sound of the small waterfalls and birdsong started to gently emerge and we were completely surrounded by only the sounds of nature and the visual majesty of the great walls of the fiord mountains rising above us on all sides. It was a moment of complete wonder and something I do not think either of us will ever forget. The crew were marvelous and the magic of the place was revealed to us through their sensibility and care. Now we are in a bach (small house) on our own and we are truly 'winging it'. It is and still remains an incredible journey.

So this is now Fogg signing out until our next installment. Very best wishes to you all
x

we are back!!

This is a picture of a Hectors dolphin swimming under the bow of our boat on a dolphin spotting trip when we were in Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. These are beautiful little dolphins and are seriously endangered by fishing nets and recreational boating so we were very pleased to see several pods. This was a wonderful trip taking us out of Akaroa Harbour and along the coast where we also saw fur seals with their pups and spotted shags.

Here is a another wonderful photo by Fogg of a fur seal. They were resting up on the rocks and the pups had a small rock pool in which to learn to swim.

Whilst in CHCH we also visited Phileas' mother's cousin Judith and her husband Alan. They live on a farm just north of Rangiora in a very beautiful valley. They made us very welcome and we stayed with them overnight. We took a wonderful walk up into the hills above the farm which gave us a 360 degree view of the countryside over to the coast and to CHCH. After a great evening meal with the family we drove back up into the hills to watch the stars. Of course in this part of NZ there is virtually no light pollution and so we were able to see millions of stars and most specially the Milky Way.

One of the highlights of our visit to the farm was feeding the calves. They have milk straight from the cow but delivered by a wonderful gadget which is basically a giant semi circular bucket with a row of teats attached!!

We moved South on Monday to stay with an old colleague of Fogg's. She and her husband live just outside the small town of Oamaru. It is a very interesting town for lots of reasons but particularly because it is full of relatives of Phileas' whose parents came to NZ in the 1920s to find a better life. It has been a very interesting journey to meet them and to hear about their lives out here.

Before I sign out and pass over to Fogg I must just record that we have seen our first 'in the wild' penguins. The nature of their life is that at this time of year they can only be seen at night when they return from a day's fishing to feed their chicks. So at 10.30pm last night we sat on a cliff top and watched 3 of the world's smallest penguins, the Little Blue, return to their chicks with tummies full of fish, probably whitebait to regurgitate - I am so glad I am not a penguin!!!

This is just a thumbnail from me, best wishes to all

Phileas

Hi. Fogg here.

I had the most wonderful time at the Fleming farm at Rangiora. Apart from their great hospitality it was also wonderful to be encouraged to get involved in the workings of the farm. Feeding the calves was great and I was able to help by loading the great buckets of 'fresh from the cow' milk on to the four wheel drive truck and drive it to the many fields around the farm where the calves were. No photographic evidence yet but we have been invited back to stay for some days so I am hoping to get more involved then. Our walk on the farm was awesome. We got to the perimeter. It is well over a thousand acres in size so it was quite a walk up the steep hills. In fact I am still feeling the effects!!. That, coupled with my sand dune exploits that some of you may have read about have both been very physically challenging for me.

It has been very interesting for me too, to meet Phileas' rellies. They have been so generous in their hospitality and very welcoming. We are meeting some more tonight for high tea in a house in Oamaru. This is where we have been staying with my old colleague Andrina from Sixth Form College days. She runs a Victorian/Edwardian costume hire organisation here and is responsible for collection of and making the clothes as well as all their maintenance. It is particularly relevant here as Oamaru has a very interesting history of Victorian times and there are many Victorian buildings here, built of white Oamaru limestone, which are being restored and put to good use. The townsfolk also celebrate their Victorian heritage with fairs and events where they all dress up in period costume. Andrina I guess is particularly busy then!

As well as visiting the Penguins last night we also saw the Moeraki Boulders.

Another amazing photograph by Fogg as you can see (left). They are Septarian Concretions. I will leave you to look that up for yourself. Answers to our email please. (Jules, Please note!)

So, our journey continues to go very well. We are off tomorrow to Lake Manapouri in Fiord Land. We have rented a Bach and have already booked an overnight trip on the Fiordland Navigator to Doubtful Sound. Very excited!!!!!!!!

A Bach by the way is a small house usually used as holiday accomodation. They were originally used by batchelors as a hideaway, hence the name. In South Island they are called Cribs.

So,this is Fogg signing off and sending you all my very best wishes.

Fogg xxx

Greetings from South Island

Happy New Year from us both!
This is Phileas and Fogg celebrating the New Year in true NZ style with yummy wine and excellent food. Oh and of course we were eating al fresco!!

Anyway 'enough of this frivolity' our readers will be shouting 'give us news, we don't want to see pictures of you enjoying yourselves!!'

Fogg sent our last posting which was from Devonport on the North Island. We have now moved our base to Christchurch on South Island, a quite different place. Much quieter, even less people and mountains! We flew over snow covered peaks and we expect to be playing snowballs before we leave SI.


As you can see I have perfected the art of putting pictures on the blog, well I have found an awesome Internet place called e Blah Blah which has all the technology I need. Unfortunately it is only in CHCH so they may be the last for some time!! This is a picture taken on the Banks Peninsula. It is worth Google Earthing as it is quite awesome, as infact the whole area is. This is the crater of a volcano, one of 2 next to each other. It was found by Captain Cook and named after the great botanist Joseph Banks. Around the harbour are small villages including one called Akaroa. It is a beautiful little town, originally settled by French as well as British and so has a slightly French air. It has some of the best preserved Victorian buildings in the whole of NZ. It is backed by the mountains of the crater and so is very sheltered. We are back there soon to go Hector dolphin and White flipper penguin watching.

We now have a hire car and so we are free to explore. Driving is good as the roads are quiet; however standards of driving in NZ are varied and there are some seriously aggressive drivers just as in UK. Fogg has been doing all the driving as he is a diffident map reader and this has led to some scary moments for Phileas as the roads are very windy in places and the views are spectacular and Fogg wants to look as well as drive!! As we drove to Akaroa we were stopping every few minutes to take in the view and then round the corner was another, equally amazing.

When we first arrived in SI we stayed in a B & B in Sumner a suburb of CHCH. This is the view from the deck of our room and is typical of the views from the house. The sea is the Pacific Ocean, we could hear the water from our bedroom and it lulled us to sleep. All around here there are houses built on the sides of the volcanic hills with spectacular views down over the sea or the city. Getting to these properties is quite exciting and on foot exhausting. The roads are switchbacks and mad cyclists career down them. We are now staying further up the valley in Sumner in the house of an ex-colleagues of Fogg's. It is quite beautiful and looks over a small valley which reminds us very much of Scotland and The Lake District. There are massive birds of prey flying overhead and the light on the hills is everchanging. It is so peaceful and beautiful.

CHCH is a lovely city, very small and unthreatening. There is a very good Art Gallery and an Arts Centre which houses working artists, exhibitions, shops and a range of cafes. A model for any town in UK.

Will now hand over to Fogg. Best wishes to all our readers
Phileas.

The landscape here is awesome. The photos just give an idea. They do not really do it justice. It is just endless beauty.

The Art Gallery in Christchurch is excellent with a fantastic range of very good contemporary and historical paintings and prints. All housed in a very impressive modern glass building. Many of the paintings evoked the Scottish colour painters of the turn of the 19th/ 20th Century. It is very interesting to see works that had also been bought over by boat in the mid 19th Century by the early European settlers.

On the matter of Back Packers. (Largely for Mr'T' and Mrs 'T''s ex students). Unlike our day, it is now a 'doddle.' They (the backpackers) just swan from one venue to another in cars or buses and then crash out in their ready made hostel beds. The only backpacking they do is from the car to their room!!!!!!!!! Then it is a spit from there to the ready made bar where they practice for when they are back in England and at Uni!!!!!!!! I am not envious or anything.

SO STUDENTS. IF YOU GET THE OPPORTUNITY. GO FOR IT.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT IS AS THEY SAY AWESOME.

This is Fogg (Mr 'T') signing off

xx

Leaving Devonport

Hi All
Phileas is being pampered at the moment so this is Fogg taking the opportunity to send you some thoughts as we are about to leave Devonport for South Island. Devonport is a super place. It is in many ways like walking into the past and yet with all the modern trappings that we have become used to. (Like this for example)It is beautiful, with majestic trees, wonderful views across to Auckland, friendly people, good bars and cafes. In fact we have really been thoroughly spoilt, but have enjoyed every minute. As we have become accustomed to being here we have ventured further. As you probably know we toured the top end of North Island which was awesome but also latterly we have also explored more locally, like climbing both extinct volcanoes which boarder two sides of Devonport. In fact the whole town is built on a larva flow. The walks have revealed something of a mystery to us. On both 'hills' or Pas(they have been used as such in the past) which is a Maori word for a fortified hill, are gun emplacements. In fact there are still large guns up there dating from the late 19th Century. They of course are inopperative but were placed there in about 1890 to protect this area and New Zealand from a supposed Russian threat! Apart from the signs on the hills telling us this we have been able to find out little of this time in history. Very intriguing since the Russian revolution was still just a twinkle in a Bolshiviks eye at that time! Any thoughts anyone? We have also taken to walking on the local 'Cheltenham' beach and have watched many Gannets diving for fish and of course enjoying the view of Rangitoto, our local ex volcanic island which has become something of an Icon for us. It is a super shape and I would love to incorporate it in to a painting or print at some time in the future when we get home. I have managed to do some drawing and am coming up with some ideas. My work seems to be taking an even more abstract quality. The shapes and patterns and textures are too good an opportunity to miss. There is so much to see. Thinking back to South East Asia I was completely visually boggled by the amount of Temples and Buddhist symbolism and the poverty I am having difficulty sorting out what I can/should/would like to do in terms of Art. (Back to NZ.) Forgive me if this is a bit rambling. It is hot today and humid too which for me makes it difficult to concentrate. We are leaving Devonport tomorrow the 4th Jan and are flying to Christchurch and hence on to Sumner where we have booked into a B and B before moving in to an ex collegues (from Redborne Upper School) house for ten days . Then on to Omaru when we stay for about a week with another ex colleague from Luton days. After that we are on our own, probably hiring a car or camper van and heading out and doing some serious exploring without the comfort of a 'permanent' home. So, at last we are begining to do what we always said we would, that that is 'winging it' . Excited? Yes. Of course. But we will miss the pool that we have become used to at the house in Devonport! We are having an amazing time. We are learning so much about places and people and have met some wonderful people too. It is also great to hear from you as well and keep us in touch with what is going on at home. So, the adventure continues. Keeping in touch may be a little more difficult from now on although we assured there are Internet cafes everywhere in NZ! We were in the Post Office in Devonport the other day filling in some forms which had our address on them. A woman who happened to look over Phileases shoulder said . Oh hello I'm from Bedford too. I was a student at St Thomas More. Small world. It seems there are at least four families from Bedford that have come to this part of NZ! So, farewell Devonport, hello South Island.
Until our next Blog.
Lots of love and Best wishes to you all.
Fogg x

Leaving DevonportHi All