I drove to Milford Sound and through the unbelievably beautiful Fiordlands. The weather was perfect and I can't even explain how stunning the drive was, I was completely awestruck by the beauty. I took my time and pulled off to take many pictures.
Mirror Lakes
After a good nights sleep in the cozy Milford Lodge I took a nice cruise out on the Milford Sound.
Then that afternoon I took a hike to beautiful Lake Marian.
After a relaxing evening and another good nights sleep I headed out of Milford Sound. Even though it was raining the drive was beautiful and I was able to view some of the thousands of waterfall that flow when it rains.
It began to brighten up and I saw this rainbow as I drove along.
I decided to drive down to Bluff and take a ferry to Stewart Island, the most southern part of New Zealand. The ferry was a wild ride, but pretty!
I stayed at the coziest backpackers (hostel). Everyone hung out in the lounge and there was a nice wood stove. When I arrived I was greeted by fresh crepes and friendly people.
After walking around the island a little bit I took a ferry over to Ulva Island where they are many New Zealand birds. It was a very nice walk through the island and we saw and heard a lot of birds.
This is the Stewart Island Robin.
This is the weka bird.
That evening we got some rain, but in between the rain I went for an evening walk with some of the people staying at the hostel. I was able to meet so many great people traveling from all around the world.
The next day I rose early and watched the sunrise
Then after some tea and breakfast, I took a long walk to a beach on another part of the island and again it was beautiful and the beaches so picturesque.
On I walked with another traveler from Switzerland, we had a nice walk and good conversation, she's thinking of studying Primary Education after her travels so it was great talking with her.
After this I was on the ferry returning towards Bluff again. On the ferry I got talking with a couple people who planned to travel the same direction as me, but hadn't really made any plans yet. I mentioned that I had room in the car and so we ended up traveling together for a few days. It was nice to have the company for the car ride.
And I had someone to take pictures, this is me at the Bluff lookout, 1500km from New York!
And here's looking towards Stewart Island from Bluff.
From Bluff we headed to Invercargill, where we dropped off two of the guys. Then three of us continued on to the Catlins and Slope Point. I was traveling with Elena form Germany and Stefano from Italy. After a bit of a detour we and traveling some poorly kept grave roads in the dark, we finally arrived. We discovered that we had the hostel all to ourselves which was nice.
Arriving in the dark, we went sure what the surrounding area was like, but I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered we were on a sheep farm.
I even petted and fed the sheep.
Driving down the road a bit, the gravel road was not as unsettling with some daylight, we came to Slope Point the most southern part of the main island.
Following this we went just a bit away to Curio Bay in hopes of finding some dolphins. After talking to some friendly people who were sea kayaking they offering to let me have a try at kayaking with the dolphins. They swam right under the kayak and it was absolutely amazing.
The water sure was cold though!
Later that evening we also went out to the beach were rare yellow eyed penguins can often be seen at dusk. We weren't disappointed, we saw penguins and they were adorable waddling around.
The sunset was also beautiful.
The following day we went to explore the Catlins, a very scenic region of New Zealand. We stopped along the way and viewed waterfalls.
McClean Falls
Purakaunui Falls
It's hard to drive in New Zealand without it being scenic.
Nugget Point.
We had driven through the Catlins now and continued North towards Dunedin, one of New Zealand's oldest cities.
We seemed to be having good luck choosing hostels and this hostel was in an old Manor House, complete with stained glass and copper floored showers.
The next day I explore Dunedin before returning towards Queenstown for my flight the following day. I enjoyed wandering through the stores and art galleries, and the architecture was beautiful.
I stopped in to see Cadbury World.
I also wished I had more time to spend in the Botanical Gardens.
The world's steepest street, although the picture don't really show it.
The threatening clouds lingering over the steepest street. Fearing some bad weather I decided to embark on my journey back towards Queenstown. I stayed at a hostel there and then caught my flight back to Auckland the following morning. My flight was uneventful as I finished my journey's.
It wasn't such a sad parting though, because I'll be back on the South Island within about a week traveling as a Stucke trio in our campervan.
