Pick up a Penguin

Hi there! Just a quick update to fill you in on what we've been up to for the last few days.

 

After leaving Christchurch we headed off towards the Southern Alps, and have had three lovely days amongst truly beautiful lakes and mountains. We spent a couple of nights in a small town on the shores of Lake Tekapo, which is a very blue glacial lake surrounded by snowy peaks. The following day we travelled to the Mount Cook National Park, and went on a long walk to the base of NZ's tallest mountain. We didn't climb this one though - its 3070m tall and covered in snow and ice! It was a really gorgeous place.

 

Today I went on a quick LOTR trip to the location where the Pellenor Fields scenes were shot, while June relaxed with a cup of coffee and a book. We then drove though lovely countryside down to the coast to a town called Oamaru, and headed down to the beach to see some Yellow Eyed Penguins come ashore after a day's fishing. Unlike on Phillip Island in Australia we got really close to the penguins and were able to take some cool pictures - we'll try to upload some tomorrow.

 

In the end we decided not to hire a camper van and have got a hire car instead. Financially it makes much more sense - the car hire was $19 a day (about 8 pounds!) and we've been staying in really nice backpacker places for about $55 a night. Compare that to a camper van cost of $140 per day, and its not rocket science. Although it would have been nice to go back to nature in a camper van, we feel happier driving around in a normal sized car and having a few home comforts.

 

OK, time for bed now. Tomorrow we're heading down towards Dunedin, which apparently is a very Scottish place, so hopefully June will feel right at home!