New Zealand

New Zealand was voted top adventure travel destination by Wanderlust magazine last year. This page covers the south coast of the South Island, one of the southernmost places on Earth.

Bluff (Lands End)
It took a couple of hours to make our way from the Alpine scenery around Te Anau to the barren south coast, where the few trees that exist are bent double from the winds that lash through. The only major town on the south coast is Invercargill. It's an industrial place with refineries, and a boring grid of dull streets, drive-n eateries and exhaust fitting centres.
Twenty km south of Invercargill, you come to the small town of Bluff. This is the southernmost point in New Zealand and one of the most southerly in the world. It's from here that the expeditions leave for the Antarctic. This Land's End is marked by a signpost which points out the distances to many of the World's major cities. London was shown to be some 18,500km distant. We had travelled a very long way from home, but with just over two weeks of our world tour remaining, it didn't seem so far away really. As well as the signpost, there is a gift shop, a cafeteria and a car park - all the facilities you might expect at the world's end, but not enough to keep you here. We headed east to Curio Bay, where we stopped for a sandwich lunch by the sea, and some dolphin spotting. From Curio Bay, we travelled through the Caitlin National Park, over rough dirt trackswhich gave the old Honda something to think about. At the east of this National Park, there is a promontory with a fine historic lightghouse - Nugget Point. It was getting late by the time we reached this remote spot, 15kms off the main coast road. Just below the lighthouse, a path leads down to a birdwatching hide overlooking a deserted beach. If you're lucky, you can spot rare yellow headed penguins in the late afternoon as they come in from the surf to feed their young a tasty meal of regurgitated fish. By pure coincidence, one of these funny little creatures came out of the twighlight, waddling up the beach just as we reached the hide. The little fellow made its way awkwardly up to the sandy cliff face and began to climb throgh the undergrowth. It was a special moment for me - I'm not sure why really.
To Be Continued ...

You are reading the story of Adrian and Katie's travels through the India and the Far East between August 1998 and February 1999.
Adrian and Katie have put the rat race on hold for a year to travel the world.