After ten weeks travelling around New Zealand’s wonderfully rain-soaked and wind-whipped South Island, I returned home with thousands of photos of trees and mountains and waterfalls. Editing them has proved simultaneously challenging (how many photos of trees can one justify keeping?) and calming (looking at all those waterfalls must be therapeutic), but I’ve finally come up with a selection of my favourites, shown below in fifty shades of green all their technicolor glory…

*   *   *   *   *

In other news, the Rough Guide to Myanmar (which I worked on last year) is out! To fuel any Burma-related wanderlust you may be suffering from, check out this list of quintessential Burmese experiences that I put together for the Rough Guide website recently…

x

Soundtrack: Maisey Rika, “Tangaroa Whakamautai”

Nugget Point in The Catlins

Beside the seaside, Aramoana

Taiaroa Head from Aramoana

The end of the road and the start of the trail in the Hollyford Valley, Fiordland

An irate sea lion roars at a side-stepping seagull at Waipapa Point. New Zealand sea lions are relatively rare, with males – like this one – weighing in at up to 400kg

Only in New Zealand… (2)

Obligatory “sheep in the road” shot, Fiordland

Glacial flour, Lake Pukaki

Golden Bay on beautiful Stewart Island

The wild but wonderful West Coast

A view of South Islands icy spine from the West Coast road

A woodland path runs through Arthur’s Pass National Park

Christchurch Cathedral, three years after the series of earthquakes that destroyed the building and the heart of the city around it.

A seagull at Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

A beached boat at Golden Bay on Stewart Island

The cave of penguins, Cathedral Caves

Hills, Hanmer Springs

Freewheeling along Highcliff Road, Otago Peninsula

Spot the camper van, Mt Cook

Moria Gate Arch, Oparara Basin

Seals in silhouette, Milford Sound. Sealers pushed the species to the brink of extinction in the 1820s, but New Zealand’s fur seal population is bouncing back nicely…

The best and worst campsite of my trip. Wild winds kept me awake all night to watch star-filled skies wheel overhead.

Positive ions at Stirling Falls, Milford Sound

A curly fern

Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki with the Southern Alps in the distance.

A sleepy seal at Pilots Beach, Otago Peninsula

Stewart Island’s #1 pastime, Halfmoon Bay

A weka beneath my wheels, West Coast

Spot the cruise ship (2), Milford Sound

Spot the cruise ship, Milford Sound

A fine day for cycling, Lake Pukaki

Mountains in monochrome, Southern Alps

Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

Only in New Zealand… (3)

A Mount Cook lily blossoms despite a late snowfall in Arthur’s Pass National Park

Weather incoming, Lake Manapouri

Near Lake Ohau on the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail

Surf’s up at St Clair, Dunedin

A kea awaits his audience, Milford Road

A monument to the climbers who have perished on the slopes of New Zealand’s highest mountain, Mount Cook

Lake Ohau

First Church of Otago, Dunedin

A great spotted kiwi’s footprints in the snow near Arthur’s Pass

Devil’s Punchbowl Falls, Arthur’s Pass National Park

Church of the Good Shepherd, on the shore of Lake Tekapo

Red, Larnach Castle

Lupins at dawn, Lake Tekapo

A lighthouse emerges from grass-covered waves at Waipapa Point, site of New Zealand’s worst civilian shipwreck

Level crossing across a roundabout? Why not! [Only in New Zealand… (1)]

Milford in the mist

Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo

Mountain beech, Arthur’s Pass

A cheeky robin hops about in the undergrowth at Arthur’s Pass National Park

Green, Larnach Castle

Getting to Cathedral Caves, The Catlins