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…

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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…

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Soundtrack: Maisey Rika, “Tangaroa Whakamautai”

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

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

Only in New Zealand… (2)

Only in New Zealand… (3)

Moria Gate Arch, Oparara Basin

Lake Ohau

The wild but wonderful West Coast

A weka beneath my wheels, West Coast

Taiaroa Head from Aramoana

Weather incoming, Lake Manapouri

Stewart Island’s #1 pastime, Halfmoon Bay

Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

The cave of penguins, Cathedral Caves

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

A sleepy seal at Pilots Beach, Otago Peninsula

Golden Bay on beautiful Stewart Island

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

Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo

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

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

A beached boat at Golden Bay on Stewart Island

Spot the cruise ship, Milford Sound

First Church of Otago, Dunedin

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

Getting to Cathedral Caves, The Catlins

Hills, Hanmer Springs

Beside the seaside, Aramoana

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

Glacial flour, Lake Pukaki

A seagull at Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

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

Spot the cruise ship (2), Milford Sound

Spot the camper van, Mt Cook

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

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

Freewheeling along Highcliff Road, Otago Peninsula

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

Surf’s up at St Clair, Dunedin

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

Mountain beech, Arthur’s Pass

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

Near Lake Ohau on the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail

Nugget Point in The Catlins

Milford in the mist

Mountains in monochrome, Southern Alps

Lupins at dawn, Lake Tekapo

A fine day for cycling, Lake Pukaki

Green, Larnach Castle

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

Red, Larnach Castle

A kea awaits his audience, Milford Road

Obligatory “sheep in the road” shot, Fiordland

A woodland path runs through Arthur’s Pass National Park