Duncan's travels

As you've probably noticed through lack of updates, travelling around the south island has been keeping me pretty busy the last few weeks!

So far, I've been to:

- Picton (03:00 crossing, nice sunrise of the Queen Charlotte Sound)
- The Queen Charlotte drive
- Duncan bay
- Penzance bay
- Havlock
- Pelorous
- Nelson
- Hawkes hole (the largest cave in the southern hemisphere - I have a video of it as well)
- Golden bay
- Collingwood
- Farewell point (northmost point on the south island)
- Back to Nelson, then Murchison
- Six mile hydro station (have a nice panorama of the top for you Magnus. ;)
- Victoria forest park,
- Maruia falls (created by a shift in the tectonic plates due to an earquake)
- Lyell (an old gold mining town)
- Westport
- Granity
- Stockton (found an old coal mine shaft)
- Karamea, Oparara basin (amazing caves, arches, cave spiders and glowworms)
- Hector (stayed at an hostel called 'The Old Slaughterhouse' - it was about 50m up a steep hill, only accessable by foot)
- back down to Westport and Cape foulwind (with a seal colony)
- Mitchellstown (old gold mine - thanks for the tip Rob!)
- Various stops along the SH6 west coast road to take photos
- Truman Track
- Pancake Rocks + blowholes (amazing to see - it was pretty stormy when I was there as well)
- Coal creek falls
- Taylorville
- Blackball (with the infamous Hilton Hotel)
- Lake Brunner + drive (my Ixus 70 died here :( )
- Greymouth (with a sunset and moonset only a few hours apart!)
- Lake Kaniere
- Doroth Falls
- Okarito beach (view of the southern alps, sunset and sunrise)
- Franz Josef glacier (plus a view from high up, after a 2:45h walk up the side of a mountain!)
- Fox glacier
- Jacobs river,
- Bruce bay (with rock stacks along the length of the bay drive!)
- Knight's point
- Haast pass (Roaring billy falls, Pleasant flat, Thunder creek falls, Fantail falls, Blue pools, Makaroa valley, Nottingly river valley)
- Lake Wanaka
- Lake Hawea
- Wanaka (including Puzzle World - brilliant!)
- Dunedin

Then onto the Southern scenic drive:
- Ocean view
- Brighton
- Taieri mouth and beach (not an actual beach though - it was inland..?!)
- Milton church
- Scenery near port Molyneux
- Wilsher bay
- Nugget point lighthouse
- Cannibal bay
- Tunnel hill (an old rail tunnel - 246 meters dug by hand, taking 2 years!)
- Pounawea (with an old dolphin - the wooden kind)
- Jack's blowhole (200 meters inland)
- Purakanui falls (which I fell into, haha... luckily my camera didn't accompany me. oopsie!)
- Mc Lennan river at dawn
- a grey Papatowai dawn
- Matai falls
- Horseshoe falls
- Isa's cave (Rere Kohu)
- McLean falls (very impressive)
- Niagara falls (really! It was only about 1 meter tall, haha...)
- George Aitken walk in Waikawa (I kid you not Dad!)
- Porpoise bay (didn't see any Hector dolphins though)
- Blue cod bay
- Curio bay (with and old petrified forrest)
- Slope point (southernmost point of the south island)
- and finally Waipapa (with a lighthouse and a family of one of the world's rarest sea lions (the New Zealand sea lion). I also twisted my ankle here. :( ). )

Then on to Invercargill (mullet town!), and the south-western scenic drive:
- Riverton
- Colac bay
- Windswept trees near Pahia
- Monkey Island (Yes, Monkey island isn't just a video game)
- Lake Monowai at dawn
- Mt. Titiroa
- Maroroa river
- Waiau river hydro station
- Lake Manapouri

Then on to Fiordland National park, which was breathtaking (with mischievous Keas)!
- Walter creek
- Knob flat
- Cascading creek
- Falls creek
- Monkey creek
- Milford sound estuary (I didn't do the tour - I'll be back for that though.)
- Tuitoko, Donne, and Gulliver rivers
- Mirror lake

Then on the way to Queenstown, I passed the Eyre mountains, Kingstown (with an old train station), the Devil's staircase, Halfway bay (on the other side of lake Wakaitipu), the Remarkables, Waikatipu outlet historic bridge, and finally Kelvin Heights.

I'll be leaving Queenstown today, heading north along lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy. Then back down to Wanaka and Alexandra in the next few days.

Caleb (the van, named after the son of the man who sold it to me in Masterton - he was very fond of it and sad to see it go...) is doing well. It's great having the freedom to go wherever, whenever and for however long you want (within reason of course!).

I'll get the photos of all of the above places uploaded at some stage - you still have to pay by the MB in most places here in NZ, so I'll be a bit more selective with what I upload I think. I'll also split up the stories behind them up into more managable sized posts.

Anyway, it's time to head on and continue my travels now. Untill next time!