South Island tour final chapter: Mt Cook to Chch

from the Otago coast, we headed back inland past the hydro power lakes. this is oldest dam of the three, Aviemore i think its called.. the water was the most amazing colour.

further on, we stopped at a river salmon farm where you can feed the fish! and then buy some fish to feed us :)
me before NZ's largest mountain, Aoraki (mount Cook).. spectack!
we stayed at Lake Tekapo for the last nite on the road, and ate some of that fresh alpine river salmon for dinner... yum!next morn, on Lake Tekapo, the famous Church of the Good Shepard... looks spectacular when its not cloudy
road-weary traveller:our last alpine vista, the Rakaia gorge. West Canterburyyy!
we finally arrived back in Christchurch, where i was born and raised. we stayed at my dad's place in scenic port Lyttelton:
there's been enough coverage of the Chch 7.1 earthquake for me to do it. we felt some gnarly aftershocks and got to see plenty of damage... its really fucked the place up i'm sorry to say

Cybela with her cousin Aska... cuties
had to get some work done too, here's some chch hell pizza shops i souped up

had to catch up with the Chch homies of course... for some night action!
and that was our South Island Tour. the end!

South island part 4: Southern Lakes, Fiordland

made it through the "Gates of Haast" to arrive at the top of Lake Wanaka, marking the arrival to the great Southern Lakes District.
a night in an unfortunately cloudy Wanaka meant no scenic shots, off to Queenstown via Cromwell

wine tasting in the Gibbston Valley, great stuff!, this is at Peregrine
another vineyard, Internationally acclaimed Gibbston Valley winery. With a boutique cheesery on premises! nice.
they age the wine here in a cave in the mountain!
Arrowtown, another goldminers town, but this one is a totally functioning town with schools and everything. but they've kept the main street totally old school. choice!

Queenstown! NZ's number one ski resort town. I always get the tingles when I'm here! even though the ski fields closed the day we arrived, enjoy that springtime slush guys.if you've never been here, boo for you. Its my favorite place on the whole island. this is the lakefront, which the town is built around.
here's some work i did in the Queenstown Hell pizza store.

up the top of the lake from Queenstown, is an almost town called Glenorchy, another dead end. Its near Saurumans house. we were hit with a mad snowstorm whilst enjoying lunch on the lake and had to do the bolt!
we went the whole way round Wakatipu, and were rewarded with same amazing views! this is from a secluded little pebble beach. Skimming stones country

at the end of the lake was a tiny town called Kingston, home of the historic Kingston Flier train that starred in the Crunchy Bar commercials.
what a soft target. Too soft! maybe i'm getting old, but there ain't no graffiti in this part of nowhere and maybe its fine just like that.
here i am in Te Anau township, the gateway to Fiordland. or did i go the wong way?
we didnt have the time to go all the way to Milford Sound, but got to enjoy some time on Lake Te Anau, largest lake in South Island.
then further south we went to Manapouri, nz's second deepest lake. pristine
then it was see ya later fiordland. end of the line... the southern coast, looking west towards fiordland

South Island tour part 1 - Canterbury

Hi folks, I'm back! from the following epic adventure:


for the benefit of my foreign friends, thats NZ's imaginatively titled "South Island". Our country has 2 main islands, the North where i live is smaller but has 70% of the population, while the southern one is mostly farming and wilderness.

Me and wifey Josie and baby Cybela set off from Christchurch, this is the view from just past the airport:first stop was lunch at Waikuku beach on the east coast:
nice day for it! then we headed west for the thermal pool resort Hanmer Springs. it was dark by the time we arrived but here's some nice scenic shots of the drive.