October 11 Sunday We left the church in Oamaru and made our first stop at the Moeraki Boulders. The lighting and the tide were different so I have another whole set of pictures of these strange beach features. Then in Dunedin, I took Julie up to Signal Hill, we both walked up Baldwin St this time and took a walk through the Botanical Garden. I stopped at the train station so she could get her own pictures of the most photographed building in Dunedin. This time as we left we went out to explore the Otago Peninsula, instead of the northern side. We drove out to the actual Albatross colony sanctuary and were told at the visitor center that due to the new hatching of five chicks no one could disturb the birds or even go to the viewing station, but that if we waited around the cliffs a bit further south and watched the sky we should see a few of the adults in the air. It took a while, but yes we did see the albatross and they were beautiful. Very hard to photograph, but that was secondary to just seeing them in the wild. There are two penguin colonies in this same area, but both are on private land and the land owners charge $50 or more to go and see them. You also have to be there at specific times late in the evening when they return from eating in the sea all day. We had a map that showed us a number of places where we potentially could see both the blue eyed and yellow eyed penguins so we were not eager to spend that much money and wait several more hours for the penguins to make an appearance. We continued south into a region called curiously enough the Southland and a large section of coastal parkland called the Caitlins. We reached the coast itself at Kaka Point near sundown and by the time we got to Nugget Point it was getting dark. We began walking out to the lighthouse, but turned back. The place was so remote we just decided to camp in the car park for the night. The only downside was that there was a bitterly cold wind howling through. (The beach below the lighthouse is called Roaring Bay, and the wind makes it apt) We parked as close to the outhouse as possible to create a windbreak, eventually cooked a pasta dinner and watched a film before bedtime.

October 12 Monday Woke up early to watch the sunrise from our 'camp site' at Nugget Point/Roaring Bay. The sky was clear and we made it out to the lighthouse shortly after the sun had come up. No animals other than seagulls in sight, but it was pretty nonetheless. It was rather windy still so we made our way to Owaka and had breakfast behind the information center, which was not going to open until 9:30 so we decided not to wait and went on down through the Caitlins. There were a series of four waterfalls that we visited: Purakaunui, Matai, Horseshoe, and MacLean. Then we stopped for a bit at Curio Bay, which has a petrified forest embedded in the rock. This is best seen at low tide and the tide was already coming in, but we could still see many of the tree trunks scattered like pick up sticks in the rock surface. Three other places we would have liked to stop were closed still due to the lambing season: The Cathedral Caves, Slope Point (the southernmost point of the south island) and Waipapa Point. We had a little bit of a scare because all our side trips used more fuel than expected and we were in an area with few gas stations. The empty light was on and we arrived at one tiny town that was supposed to have fuel and their station was closed. The next option (only option really) was another 15 kms down the road. We made it there and their pumps were down as well. There was a power outage from the high winds. Luckily, while we were considering what to do, the power came back on. I had prayed to myself several times as we had gone further and further with the empty light on and this was just a little answer for me. It also gave me a chance to see how far I can push the spaceship. After refueling we made the last little leg into Invercargill. I texted Alex B who we planned to couchsurf with, but did not hear back from him. I had their address, so we just drove over and they were at home so there was no problem. They were three Uni students sharing a place. They are all studying various phases of music and it was fun to talk with them for the evening. One was leaving early the next morning to do a performance tour. Julie and I went back out and ate at a Indian restaurant. I had a really good spinach dish. Back at the couchsurfers place we got showers and shortly thereafter went to bed.

October 13 Tuesday We got up early, had a quick breakfast and then headed the 30 kilometers to the town of Bluff where we could catch a ferry across the Foveaux Strait to Stewart Island, It was not encouraging weather at all, with heavy overcast and actual rain as we neared Bluff. But we could see blue sky out on the horizon and the forecast said this was our best chance if we were going to go to the island at all. There was still a fair amount of wind and the hour long ferry ride was quite choppy, but it was partially blue sky that greeted us by the time we arrived in the town of Oban in Halfmoon Bay. We had booked a Paterson Inlet Cruise, which gave us a couple hours to explore before we had to join that tour. We walked from Oban around the Bay, past Butterfield Beach and Bragg Bay and decided we had enough time to take a trail along the coast to Horseshoe Point and then back by an inland route. The trail was pleasant at first, but got muddier and muddier and it really slowed us down. We started realizing that we were running out of time and were going as fast as we could. By the time we made it back to a paved road we had only 20 minutes to go almost 4 km, possible but not likely without running. We continued walking and hoped for a car to come by that could give us a ride. There are not many vehicles on the island. We were lucky though. A lady that just moved to the island a few months ago stopped and gave us a ride right to where we needed to be with several minutes to spare. She said she loved living on the island and her three children liked the personalized attention they were receiving at the 19 student school on the island.

For the afternoon we went on the Patterson Inlet Cruise, which went to a number of sites on the inlet and included an hour long guided tour on Ulva Island, a completely predator free island where many birds are being reintroduced and raised. The guided tour was extremely informative and my highlight of the cruise. We learned to identify several trees, birds, and plants I had been wondering about for weeks (lancewood, rimu, tui, and weka for instance). Ulva Island used to be the home of the area postmaster, when Stewart Island was a collection of 18 or more lumber mills. There is a private family residence on the island to this day and the current owners are in full cooperation with the bird saving initiatives. After the cruise we again had some time before our return to the mainland. We did another loop walk that took us along the coast to Deep Bay, which is so called because it goes so far inland (it is actually very shallow and two of the three boats that were moored there were up in the mud for the low tide).The ferry ride back was much calmer and we had no problems. We stopped back at the Couchsurfers place to retrieve our backpacks, grabbed a quick dinner to go in Invercargill and began driving towards Te Anau, where we planned to stay with another Couchsurfer. I had texted him earlier in the day to say we would be coming rather late in the evening. I had not gotten a reply. When we got to the edge of town I called Nathan. He had not received the texts, but remembered my emails and since we had the spaceship it was not a problem. He actually had someone staying on his couch already, an American from Florida, named Ryan. We all talked in the kitchen until almost 1 am and then headed out to bed.

October 14 Wednesday We were in no real rush based on the forecasted weather, so we had a leisurely morning before leaving Nathan's place in Te Anau. We stopped at the local library and were able to use the internet for only a few minutes before they chased us all out so they could use the computer room for a meeting. But we were able to still get a strong enough signal out in the parking lot and stayed long enough to check a few things. Julie bought some souvenirs in town, then we drove down to Lake Manapouri, which is the gateway to Doubtful Sound. As I mentioned the weather was not very good, with sprinkles off and on. In some ways that was a good thing as it made it easier to accept our earlier decision to skip the Doubtful Sound tours. They are much more involved (it takes two boat rides and a bus drive in between to reach this sound) and therefore much more expensive. Prohibitively so. But still tempting. Anyway, knowing that there were potentially at least 14 interesting stops on the way up to Milford Sound, we began that journey. The weather did absolutely not cooperate though. Everything was clouded over or fogged in and we only really got to see the Interpretive Center at Knob's Flat. We had to hope for a better weather day tomorrow and that is what the forecast was telling us we would get. We arrived at Milford Sound and went into the Information Center/Restaurant. The info center was closed and they were busy decorating for an Oktoberfest party. Really we should have had to go back more than 20 kms to an official campground (of which there were several), but we were told we could just stay in the car park. I half expected to be told to move at some point in the night, but it was certainly more convenient to be right there. We would not have to drive far in the morning, or get up as early as we would otherwise. We checked in at the restaurant later, but no music was playing yet and we decided not to eat there. No one bothered us at all that night, so it was a good decision for us to have made.

October 15 Thursday We got up from our No Camping allowed location and after a quick breakfast we walked over to the port where the four companies offering cruises in the sound are located. I also took some pictures as the sun was just beginning to hit Mitre Peak. There was a photographer who had waited an hour standing hip deep in the very cold water to get some shots very similar to mine. He was happy and I was happy, but a lot less cold. I had already decided I wanted to go with Mitre Peak Cruises and I think it was the right decision. They have the first cruise in the morning so we had the sound to ourselves at the beginning. They also have a lower price for that first cruise. The lighting was great as the sun slowly exposed itself on the walls of the fjord. There were so many waterfalls from the rain yesterday and the scenery was incredible. We went all the way out to the Tasman Sea and saw a yellow eyed penguin on the rocks, a few blue eyes swimming in the water, fur seals on rocks in another part of the fjord, and beauty all around in places with names like Bowen Falls, Harrison Cove, The Lion and the Elephant, Stirling Falls, and the Overhang. The cruise was informative and fun. There is so much rain in the sound that there is actually a layer of fresh water up to 12 meters deep sitting on top of the ocean salt water. We got close enough to one of the falls so that everyone got partially wet.

The weather was holding up and so on our return trip to Te Anau, we were able to make all the stops we had skipped yesterday. The interesting Chasm, The Homer Tunnel, Lyttles Flat View, Falls Creek Waterfall, the Hollyford River, Pops View, The Divide, Lake Gunn Nature Walk, Mirror Lakes, Eglinton Flats, and the Te Anau Downs Harbor all were out from their cloaks today. Even with all the stops we covered a lot of ground and made it all the way to Queenstown before dark. I went to the Deco Backpackers and they gave us a discounted rate for me being a return visitor and bringing a new person with me. They put us in a room where we could actually get internet signal, a great bonus. It was late enough that Julie could not book her bungy jump this evening, but we did get some information.