Invercargill wasn't close enough from the south pole so i take a flight to this cold -but lovely- island, 40 km south of Invercargill.
Oban, the only town one the island, mostly populated by fishermen.
In the back, the southern-most house of the world.
Southern-most big city of New Zealand, nothing much interesting about the town itself. Museum was still pretty cool though.
This funny creature isn't a lizard, more like a cousin of dinausor, difference is that species survive the apocalypse. That one on the picture, in spite of having a really cool name, is 130 years old.
This used to be a regular motorbike before Burt Monro (from invercargill) tuned it to beat the speed world record (295 km/h in 1967). See the movie "The world fastest indian" for more.
According to the maori legend Steward island (little island south from here) was the anchor of the South Island (his canöe)
Finally arrived in this famous ski resort in the southern alps, kind of the equivalent of Megève or Courchevel so it stinks a bit too much money for me, but really beautiful tho.
On the road again, i'm travelling south along the west coast, as know as "we(s)tland"..
Fist stop at pancakes rocks some funny rocks scuplted by erosion:
Another stop at Greymouth, hometown of the coal (and formely gold) miners:
So after working 1 month and a half next to it we finally made this great walk. Here is a few sample of the 3 days we spent in the park.
Last real town before the Abel Tasman National Park
some kind of "sea swimming-pool"
The Abel Tasman Park in the font, one of the most beautiful crossing of the world can be done there (according to all tourist book i've red).
Just landed in South Island we headed directly to Nelson, lovely town on the coast surrounded by mountains.
Taking the ferry from Wellington (North Island)...
...to picton (South Island)
I finally left Napier, heading to wellington before leaving to south island. I stayed there only 2 days so i didn't see that much of that lovely town.
Visit of The Weta Cave, the movie effects makers who are behind King Kong, Avatar and of course Lord of the Rings (actually they made all of Peter Jackson movies). Those guys create almost everything: armors, weapons, visual effects, models, vehicules ...
Thanks to one the guide, we had the info that Peter Jackson was shoting The Hobbit close to the weta cave, he told us we won't be allowed to enter the site but we managed to sneak inside.
Te Apa, biggest museum of Welli which regroups the "all you need to know about NZ" stuff.
From geology..
to natural history,
with a huge part of history.
Lookout of the town from the top of a surrounding hill. We were quite lucky cause the weather in Wellington is usually real crap (windiest city in the world)
Swimming pool of Napier during a dayoff.
with a hot tub...
3 swimming pools...
a spa, a sauna and a steam room. For 9$/entry
