Matt & Sarah's Big Trip: Summer South Island Extravaganza

Goodbyes completed at Wanaka (part 2 of this trilogy), we set off for the final part of our South Island odyssey. We'd heard amazing things about the Catlins (the area to East of the most Southerly point of mainland NZ) and weren't disappointed when we arrived at the campsite at Curio Bay to a bit of a nice view.

Not a bad spot to settle for the night

The training schedule meant we couldn't get settled just yet - so we set off on an hour run around the coast, ending at the Petrified Forest near our site. The Petrified Forest is a 180 million year old collection of logs (more interesting than it sounds!) as well as being home to the rare yellow eyed penguin. Unfortunately as we were running we didn't take the camera, so we will have to leave the little critters to your imagination. Penguin spotting had definitely been on my NZ bucket list - and they didn't disappoint!

The next morning we donned our wetsuits and braced ourselves for a dip in the Southern Ocean (unsurprisingly, a bit chilly owing to there being nothing between us and Antarctica). We weren't the only ones enjoying an early morning swim as we were soon joined by a little school of teeny Hector's Dolphins who played around us to our absolute amazement! Another highlight not caught on camera unfortunately - you'll have to make do with a shot of the bay where we swam:

Aptly named Porpoise Bay

The Catlins' natural sights were plentiful and still beautiful on a damp day:

Exploring sea caves

The best thing to do in the rain -
visit waterfalls!

Stanning.

Jack's Blowhole

And bumping into Mark and Janelle again at Nugget Point topped things off nicely!

What are the chances?!

Next stop - Dunedin.

Most photographed building in NZ, apparently
(Dunedin's rail station)

Dunedin is home to Speight's beer - anyone who knows Matt from his uni days will remember his Speight's t shirt from his first trip down under. I remember it very fondly as being his shirt of choice when he first wooed me! So I was pretty stoked to visit the brewery itself ten years on...

Sober smiles

Best part of a brewery tour is the tasting. This one was an 'all you can drink' type affair. Help yourself for 30 mins - on your marks, get set, drink!

Tiddly smiles

30 minutes only? Challenge accepted!

10 years on... spot the difference!

Slightly fuzzy headed the next morning, we set off on a ride out onto the Otago Peninsula - one of the most beautiful cycles I've been on (if a little hilly)

Better than the gym

A break at the tip of the peninsular gave us the chance to do a bit of albatross spotting. Managed to catch this rare bird on camera (sort of):

Watching the 3 metre Albatrosses soar

En route to our next stop (Oamaru) we checked out the Moeraki Boulders - another natural wonder:

The bizarre Moeraki Boulders

Toes and rocks

Dinosaur impressions were a must

Oamaru itself was a surprise - historic buildings, a delish cheese shop and some random Steampunk features filled a couple of hours of strolling:

The Steampunk Capital of NZ. As you do.

Little Britain

Romanesque

With a bit of time to spare (sort of) we decided to detour from the East coast and do the 'Twizel Twirl' - an alternative route into the mountains which got us to the other side of Mount Cook, NZ's highest mountain (we'd seen quite a bit of it from the Western side on our way down):

View of the big one from Lake Pukaki

We felt we should get a bit closer this time, so jumped on our bikes and cycled 60k from the tip of the lake to the foot of the mountain. Easier said than done when its head wind all the way...

Matt's happy place!

It was worth it once we got to Mount Cook Village:

The Sir Edmund Hillary Centre did a good coffee and muffin!

Sir Ed, half of the duo that first climbed Everest

It was even more worth it for the ride back - backwind + downhill = top speed for Matt of 74.9kph.

Job done

After a night on the shore of the turquoise Lake Tekapo underneath some of the world's starriest skies we jumped back into Carrie and hot footed it to the Banks Peninsula, NZ's french (ish) corner near Christchurch. A bit of chilling was in order:

A lazy day on the Banks Peninsular

The Palace

Sun set strolling

Followed by a bit of hiking:

The cruise ship gives this climb some scale!

And onto our final proper stop of the holiday - Marlborough. We'd had such a lovely time last year spending a day cycling and wine tasting that we just had to repeat it. The only difference being that this year we had our own bikes in tow - a training session with a little extra refreshment!