Well, as the title of this blog entry shows, I'm pretty blown away by the South Island so far and I've hardly even started! I hired what I thought was meant to be a small 'compact' car (so it would be cheaper) but the car rental place didn't have any, so I got upgraded to a 4WD Hyundai jeep thingy. Very awesome. It's almost as big as a proper ute and I have plenty of room and grunt to go pretty much anywhere. It's a 2007 model so has plenty of mod cons which is just great. Best thing is though, is that I hired it for 5 days but only have to pay for 3 which is pretty awesome. So yesterday afternoon I picked that up and drove south from Dunedin. I took the coastal route from there and made my way down to Invercargill. I stopped off at Balclutha and had a bit of a look around... saw the big river that gave the town it's name. I then went on and had a look at the Matai Falls. It was only a 10 minute walk into the bush off the main road, and there were two falls, the main Matai waterfall and another one called Horseshoe Falls. Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera ran out after taking a few snaps of the first fall, but Horseshoe Fall is aptly name - it's like a mini Niagara Falls... water comes down around it in a big wide arc - very cool.
After that, I was driving for a bit and I went down to another falls which was McLeans Falls. It was a bit of a hike, about 20 mins through the bush (which was frikken awesome) and the falls were amazing. While I was there a bunch of kid came through and clambered up the rocks and all over the waterfall. Should have down that myself, but I tend to be a little careful when I'm by myself as there is no one to go get help if something should happen to me. Anyhow, I have a few pics of the kids all over the rocks hehe.
Unruly South Island children ;-)
Later on, I made it to the very southern tip of the South Island, it was pretty wild and rugged down there, although I think the Ngawi, or Castlepoint, which are basically the southern tips of the North Island are actually more wild and rugged. But anyhow, it was still awesome to be there and check out the terrain and the cold windy conditions that existed. I didn't see any seals or dolphins, they had signs posted to say to look out for them but I think that was just for the tourists haha! After that I was in a pretty good mood. I've now officially traveled to the tops and bottoms of both of the main Islands. I've now only got Stewart Island to go but I don't think I will go there on this trip - maybe I think I will save it for another adventure... as I think I will need a few days to do that properly.
Stewart Island will wait for another day!!
So anyhow I traveled further down the coast. I basically drove for over an hour through bush which was like a giant national park (it probably was a national park come to think of it - haha The Catlins I think it was called) and was pretty awesome. One time I pulled over because I just liked the view and I wound down the window (real hard when you only have electric windows haha) and my good I was almost deafened with damn bird noises! Tui's and a multitude of other singing birds were out in force... it was starting to get a little dark so I suspect they were trying it on for the last time of the day. Pretty amazing really.
So I got into Invercargill just on dusk. I drove around the township several times getting adjusted to it. I found myself a motel for the night and through my bags inside and then went for a walk through the township. It was very nice. I've heard some rubbish comments about Invercargill - mainly about it being the ass-end of NZ and crap like that. But it's actually rather nice and tidy and very presentable. Sure, it's not Auckland and giant with loads of shops and stuff but it's a very nice place and seems to be easy to get around and see things.
Today I think I will drive over to Bluff and sample some famous Bluff oysters. I really don't like Oysters, but I get me half a dozen deep fried ones (sorry purists) and maybe a piece or two of blue cod and will try that. I'll have a bit of a nosey around there and then come back to Invercargill and check out a few things here.
All in all though, I've been on the road for half a day, and not even going up the west coast and I'm enjoying this part of the country immensely. Awesome!
Make sure you guys check out the photo links on the right hand side of this blog - there are a few pics there of my travels so far.
Cheers
Matt
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