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”

The cave of penguins, Cathedral Caves

A woodland path runs through Arthur’s Pass National Park

Weather incoming, Lake Manapouri

Lupins at dawn, Lake Tekapo

Milford in the mist

Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

Beside the seaside, Aramoana

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

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

Lake Ohau

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…

Hills, Hanmer Springs

Red, Larnach Castle

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

Obligatory “sheep in the road” shot, Fiordland

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

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

Moria Gate Arch, Oparara Basin

A kea awaits his audience, Milford Road

Nugget Point in The Catlins

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

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

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

Only in New Zealand… (2)

Stewart Island’s #1 pastime, Halfmoon Bay

Only in New Zealand… (3)

Golden Bay on beautiful Stewart Island

Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo

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

A seagull at Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

Taiaroa Head from Aramoana

A sleepy seal at Pilots Beach, Otago Peninsula

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

Getting to Cathedral Caves, The Catlins

Spot the cruise ship (2), Milford Sound

Freewheeling along Highcliff Road, Otago Peninsula

Mountain beech, Arthur’s Pass

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

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

First Church of Otago, Dunedin

Surf’s up at St Clair, Dunedin

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

A fine day for cycling, Lake Pukaki

Spot the cruise ship, Milford Sound

A beached boat at Golden Bay on Stewart Island

Mountains in monochrome, Southern Alps

A weka beneath my wheels, West Coast

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

Spot the camper van, Mt Cook

Positive ions at Stirling Falls, Milford Sound

Near Lake Ohau on the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail

The wild but wonderful West Coast

A curly fern

Green, Larnach Castle