South Island Pictures: Picton, Kaikoura, and Queenstown

I am writing this in Auckland, having left Wellington yesterday in something of a flurry of tears. I’ve been planning my Northland trip (diving the Poor Knights! Cape Reinga!) and getting ready to see some friends up here and the South Island feels like it never happened, really.

But! Thanks to the magic of crappy digital photography, I can prove it did happen. Let us proceed.

So the first thing I did when I left Wellington the last time was go down to Picton with my gorgeous friend Deirdre. We took a lovely drive to a lovely winery one day and I attempted to drink wine. I did a lot better with the cheese plate.

And then the real backpacking began, starting in Kaikoura, where, as you may recall, I did the dolphin thing. I didn’t get many good photos of the dolphins but here are a couple of blurry ones just so you know I didn’t make the whole thing up.

They were super acrobatic and were hurling themselves all over the place after we finished the swim, but it was really really hard to catch them in action.

This guy was just riding the boat’s bow wave. I think it looks sort of like a big scary orca here but in reality most of them were just about as big as I am. It was still pretty intense to be so close.

And here I am after having just climbed out of the water, all out of breath and excited, going “Hoo! Hee! Dolphins! I…yeah! Brrr! Wow! Dolphins! Woo! Cold!”

And here is an albatross in the sunrise. I feel that is a very poetic observation, don’t you?

I spent about a week in Kaikoura altogether and when I wasn’t disporting merrily with the marine mammals I dedicated quite a lot of my time to a) this fudge shop they had there and b) walking around on the various beaches, humming vaguely to myself.

Here I have been hired, clearly, by the NZ tourism board to make everyone else jealous.

My mom told me that she wanted to see more pictures of me, so here I am Mom, right in the middle of the scenery.

For the myriads, I’m sure, of bird lovers reading this, here is a nice shag (the Brits never get tired of that, by the way) for you, out on the stone beach.

And here’s one that got a bit confused and wandered into town, right outside the previously mentioned fudge shop.

After this I went to Christchurch to see my friend Laura and stay in her gorgeous house and help out with her housewarming party and I had so much fun hanging out with her that I took no pictures whatsoever. I also, randomly, had lunch in the city centre with Marah’s mom, if you can believe it, who with her husband is on this round-the-world boat trip and happened to be in Christchurch at the same time I was. We got to call Marah from Cathedral Square and it was just very random, but such is the power of the Key Girls and their assorted families, you know? I didn’t pull out the camera until I got to Queenstown, where the first thing I did was to refuse to do a bungy jump.

Riding the gondola to the top of the mountain and having a coffee was about as close as I got to doing any Adventure Adrenalin Activities. Although, you’ll never guess who was in the gondola ahead of me! Three patched-up members of one of New Zealand’s scariest gangs! I didn’t take any pictures or anything but that was pretty weird, to see them in their full gang regalia taking in the scenery like everyone else.

The Remarkables as seen from the Ben Lomond Track.

I found a little spot on the side of a hill while I was walking around up there and was all ready to sit down with my book and my water bottle when I saw these cutout metal statues and freaked out for a minute, thinking they were real people. And then, when I was all settled down in the grass, this couple came up the track and totally started making out, obviously not knowing I was there but in full view of the fake cowboys.

And last but not least here is a sign that made me think of all my friends in the Silicon Valley, many of whom, I’m sure, would enjoy a tavern like this very much.