South-East Coast

I’ve covered a lot of territory since the last post!

From Christchurch, I headed towards Mt. Cook, which is not only the highest peak in NZ, it is the highest in “Australasia”. It was in the news in the last few days, because two Japanese climbers died while descending. The chunk of rock they had anchored to for rappeling collapsed while the first person descended. The second climber was clipped into the anchor, and was pulled down. A third climber was also anchored, but the collapsing rock severed his webbing, so he was no longer attached.

While I was at Cook, the weather was really bad – raining all day. The forecast for the next few days was equally bad. Cook seems to make its own weather, though, because a couple of dozen km’s away it was fine.

I stayed in Oamaru, and saw both Yellow-Eyed and Blue Penguins coming ashore. The Yellow-Eyed was from a blind, very far away, so they were just dots.

The Blues were from a “grandstand” set up for night viewing. The Blues come in from the ocean just after sunset. This was a pretty good view, and, at one point, a couple of the penguins were only 4 or 5 metres away. No photography allowed, unfortunately, because flashes will scare the penguins away. Most people do not know how to turn the flash off on their digi-cams, so all photography banned!

Then on to the Moeraki Boulders, which is a collection of spherical sandstone rocks on a beach.

Now, I am in Dunedin. I will continue along the Otago Peninsula, then along the south coast.