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”

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

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

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

The wild but wonderful West Coast

A seagull at Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

Stewart Island’s #1 pastime, Halfmoon Bay

Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo

Taiaroa Head from Aramoana

Freewheeling along Highcliff Road, Otago Peninsula

Spot the cruise ship (2), Milford Sound

A woodland path runs through Arthur’s Pass National Park

Positive ions at Stirling Falls, Milford Sound

A beached boat at Golden Bay on Stewart Island

Getting to Cathedral Caves, The Catlins

Hills, Hanmer Springs

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

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

Green, Larnach Castle

Milford in the mist

Mountains in monochrome, Southern Alps

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

Mountain beech, Arthur’s Pass

Moria Gate Arch, Oparara Basin

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

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

Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

Nugget Point in The Catlins

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…

A curly fern

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

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

Only in New Zealand… (2)

A kea awaits his audience, Milford Road

Near Lake Ohau on the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail

Golden Bay on beautiful Stewart Island

Lake Ohau

Obligatory “sheep in the road” shot, Fiordland

First Church of Otago, Dunedin

Weather incoming, Lake Manapouri

Glacial flour, Lake Pukaki

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

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

Red, Larnach Castle

The cave of penguins, Cathedral Caves

Surf’s up at St Clair, Dunedin

A sleepy seal at Pilots Beach, Otago Peninsula

Spot the camper van, Mt Cook

Lupins at dawn, Lake Tekapo

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

A fine day for cycling, Lake Pukaki

Only in New Zealand… (3)

Beside the seaside, Aramoana

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

Spot the cruise ship, Milford Sound

A weka beneath my wheels, West Coast