From beaches to mountains

Our last full day on the Otaga Peninsular was on Saturday. Before we left we booked a late pm/early evening trip with a local tour company that took us (and about 15 others) by bus to more remote locations and one private beach. It ended our stay in Dunedin perfectly. We saw so may animals and birds including a kingfisher, a pukeko (a native bird), more albatross and towards the end of the trip both yellow eyed and blue penguins. The final climb found us overlooking numerous fur seals, mainly females with their young playing in rock pools. The yellow eyed penguins ( see below) are in decline with only about 3000 left so this secluded and protected beach offers at least a chance of survival.

The fur seals meanwhile are doing better!

We left our B&B on Sunday morning and called in to Dunedin itself for breakfast with one of Maggie's old pupils, Willam, who is now at university in the town. He and his girlfriend, Tina, were great to see but we had a road trip ahead to Twizel, so no time to waste!

Twizel is fairly central in the South Island and was originally a town born of a local power station. Its  now effectively reinvented itself as the gateway to Cook Mountain. We stayed in a beautiful cottage and had fresh eggs delivered by our hosts. We had two nights in Twizel and drove into the mountains for a full days walking on Monday through the Hooker Valley. NZ continues to amaze us. Cook Mountain is 12,200 feet high and is surrounded by an equally impressive mountain range. We walked high enough to enjoy lunch on the edge of a glacial lake.

The Lakes in the area are an amazing turquoise colour - almost hard to believe when you see it. Glacial water as it melts is grey colour caused by rock sediment but as it enters the lakes, it settles and the rock particles are suspended in the water. This creates a blue/turquoise colour. Its amazing what you learn on this blog! The only more beautiful thing I saw on the day was Maggie (she checks this for spelling later so bear with me). (Flattery will bet you everywhere Mr C! - Maggie)

As we left today for Christchurch, we said a fond farewell to this area, which was again so stunning. A final view of the Mount Cook Mountains - where we could have walked for days,

We have just landed in Christchurch through pouring rain, which thankfully stopped as we arrived. We are out for a meal tonight with Ghislane and Martin, again ex colleagues of Maggie's, who live here. Should be fun. More on the city later.................