South Island in Pictures

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…

Soundtrack: Maisey Rika, “Tangaroa Whakamautai”

Moria Gate Arch, Oparara Basin

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

Mountains in monochrome, Southern Alps

First Church of Otago, 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…

Mountain beech, Arthur’s Pass

Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

Spot the cruise ship (2), Milford Sound

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

Beside the seaside, Aramoana

A beached boat at Golden Bay on Stewart Island

Obligatory “sheep in the road” shot, Fiordland

The wild but wonderful West Coast

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

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

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

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

Freewheeling along Highcliff Road, Otago Peninsula

Getting to Cathedral Caves, The Catlins

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

Surf’s up at St Clair, Dunedin

Near Lake Ohau on the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail

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

Nugget Point in The Catlins

The cave of penguins, Cathedral Caves

Green, Larnach Castle

Lupins at dawn, Lake Tekapo

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

Hills, Hanmer Springs

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

Only in New Zealand… (2)

Weather incoming, Lake Manapouri

Red, Larnach Castle

A kea awaits his audience, Milford Road

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

Taiaroa Head from Aramoana

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

Stewart Island’s #1 pastime, Halfmoon Bay

A weka beneath my wheels, West Coast

A fine day for cycling, Lake Pukaki

Spot the cruise ship, Milford Sound

Spot the camper van, Mt Cook

Milford in the mist

A curly fern

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