We
started out tour of the South of the Island by spending two nights at Lake
Tekapo, walking and exploring the countryside. 
From there we moved on to Mount Cook, an awesome spectacle. We camped for two nights at a nearby campsite
and Norman walked to the Muller Hut and climbed Mt Ollivier near Mt Cook,
with views of the Tasman Glacier.
We spent the next night at a backpackers hostel in Alexandra
before moving on to an area called the Catlins. This area has beautiful coastline
and beaches, with abundant wildlife, including sea lions and yellow eyed
penguins.
On one of our coastal walks, we nearly tripped over a sleeping sea
lion, thinking it was a large lump of seaweed! We spent two days there before
moving off to take the ferry to Stewart Island.
We really enjoyed our stay there. The Island is very quiet and
peaceful, with lots of interesting walking tracks. Kiwis inhabit the island.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any, they are nocturnal and rarely seen
during the day, but, on one of our evening strolls we did hear them in the
woods.
During our stay on Stewart Island, we took a ferry across to Ulva
Island, which is famous for its variety of birds seen nowhere else. We saw saddlebacks,
tomtits, kakas, and parakeets amongst the trees, together with very tame
robins. The NZ robin has a white breast as opposed to our own native redbreast.
We then moved on to Te Anau, which sits by another beautiful
lake,where again we enjoyed some lovely walks.
Our next stop was in Milford Sound, which has the most spectacular scenery and is situated at the end of a fiord. We took a boat trip down the Sound and out to sea to experience the breathtaking scenery.
Our next stop was Wanaka, another lakeside venue surrounded by
mountains, a couple of which Norman climbed while we were there.
The whole trip was amazing. We were lucky with the weather
with only one half day of rain, so we were able to make the most of our time
down South.
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