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 curly fern

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…

Beside the seaside, Aramoana

Spot the cruise ship, Milford Sound

The wild but wonderful West Coast

First Church of Otago, Dunedin

A beached boat at Golden Bay on Stewart Island

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

Nugget Point in The Catlins

Golden Bay on beautiful Stewart Island

Stewart Island’s #1 pastime, Halfmoon Bay

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

A seagull at Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

A fine day for cycling, Lake Pukaki

A sleepy seal at Pilots Beach, Otago Peninsula

Milford in the mist

Only in New Zealand… (2)

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.

Monkey Island on Te Waewae Bay

Near Lake Ohau on the Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail

Mountain beech, Arthur’s Pass

Lake Ohau

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

Green, 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

A weka beneath my wheels, West Coast

Red, Larnach Castle

Hills, Hanmer Springs

Mountains in monochrome, Southern Alps

Freewheeling along Highcliff Road, Otago Peninsula

Surf’s up at St Clair, Dunedin

Getting to Cathedral Caves, The Catlins

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

Moria Gate Arch, Oparara Basin

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

Spot the camper van, Mt Cook

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

Spot the cruise ship (2), Milford Sound

Obligatory “sheep in the road” shot, Fiordland

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

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

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

Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Tekapo

Positive ions at Stirling Falls, Milford Sound

Weather incoming, Lake Manapouri

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

The cave of penguins, Cathedral Caves

Glacial flour, Lake Pukaki

A kea awaits his audience, Milford Road

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

Taiaroa Head from Aramoana

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

Lupins at dawn, Lake Tekapo

Only in New Zealand… (3)