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Message: <blockquote data-quote="birdboybowley" data-source="post: 1255475" data-attributes="member: 60953">We awoke to the amazing view across the azure lake and the mountains beyond, separated only by a thin line of mist...I’ve awoken to worse things....! We headed up into the valleys around Lake Ohau and the road soon degenerated into a dusty gravel track as we aimed for the Temple Valley, along which we christened the van ‘Dyson’ as it sucked in about as much dirt as one! We reached the carpark and walked into the mature beech forests, the trees festooned with lichens and mosses with ferns sprouting from everywhere and small cascading waterfalls tumbled their way down to the vast rocky riverbed below. There were even native birds here!!![ATTACH]152661[/ATTACH]Ever-delightful Riflemen crept up the trunks, with flocks of Silvereyes and Pipipis (or boringly Brown Creepers) actively fed through the foliage while tomtits and fantails flycatched all around to the backdrop of calling Bellbirds. The only downer was the discovery of the dreaded sandflies that voraciously viewed me as a walking meal-ticket – these things are awful, second only to the mozzies along the Snake Bight Trail in the Everglades! We left the splendour of the mountains behind us as we headed eastwards for the coast again along the scenic route past Lake Aviemore which was another unbelievable shade of blue – the kind of colour that if I painted it true to life would just look wrong! We took the slight detour and crossed its rather impressive dam and stopped for fuel in Kurow where the guy in front seemed to b filling every fuel can in NZ....so thought bugger this and continued towards Duntroon, which turned out to be a mistake as there were no pumps in Duntroon and we’d been on empty for the past 10mins! We asked in a local pub where the nearest petrol station was (yep, Kurow of course) and a very nice man named Ray said he could help. We followed him back to his place, he moved his big-rig to reveal his very own pumps!! He gave us 20litres for $20 so we gave him $10 for his trouble, not that he wanted it – what a dude!!Headed towards Omauru and stopped at the Elephant Rocks which was used as the setting of Aslan’s camp in the first Narnia film – cool! We finally reached the town and proceeded straight to Bushy Beach where we walked along the clifftop boardwalk to the viewing platforms. We didn’t have to wait long before a stunning Yellow-eyed Penguin waddled out of the kelp-filled surf below and began its steady climb up the beach. 20mins later it walked past in front of us, no more than 5ft away...WOW! [ATTACH]152662[/ATTACH]We watched about 6 more follow their favoured paths to their nest sites. We them drove round to the Little Penguin parade but seeing as they had a no video rule, didn’t bother going in. We stayed in the Top 10 Holiday Park ($28) in town as batteries needed charging and the lure of hot showers was too much!The next day we headed basically southwards and stopped at Moeraki Beach to look at the bizarre circular rocks that looked like props from ’Cocoon’ with their tortoishell-like markings. We drove through the picturesque Trotter’s Gorge and back up to Shag Point (no puns please children!) and had good views of Spotted and Stewart Island Shags (of both colour morphs), another fantastic Yellow-eyed Penguin and a distant huge male Hooker’s Sealion. We drove inland along the 85 & 87, crossing over the impressive Tairei Ridge which was basically ‘Rohan’ from Lord of the Rings. An amazing play of light as the sun played hide and seek with the broiling dark grey clouds as the wind whipped up the tussock grasslands so it looked like the entire countryside was moving. An amazing rainbow appeared as we drove parallel to the Rock & Pillar Range along which the sheets of rain were visible causing the colours to diffuse together as they fell in front of it. The birds definitely took backstage to the scenery but Common Turkey and California Quail were notable. The wind really picked up as we neared the Sinclair Wetlands near Berwick, to the point that as came up over a ridge the van was literally blown sideways off the track...! Eek! With the wind blowing a gale we parked up in a little turn off just up from Lake Waihola. The following morning we went back to the wetlands. We picked up a map from the deserted visitor centre and wandered along the trails and soon found a superb pair of duetting South Island Fernbirds (male – ‘u’; female – ‘tick’) and watched them cautiously climbing through the sedge grasses and shrubs. [ATTACH]152658[/ATTACH]Plenty of the usual waterfowl on the lakes, but the unfortunate Black Swan floating face down by one of the jetties didn’t look too well at all....We left this pleasant spot and headed up a long, arduously winding road and finally joined the coast road onto the Otago Peninsula and made it into Dunedin – which looked as Scottish as it sounds! We followed the road out to Taiaora Head and parked up at the Royal Albatross Centre, the only mainland albatross colony in the world - and not to be missed. The wind was unbelievable – it was n effort to open the door against it!! Birds seemed to fly backwards as they tried to battle against it, and the single Northern Royal Albatross I saw seemed to be the only thing out there enjoying it, effortlessly hanging steady against the relentless wind. The visitor centre is pretty spectacular but timing was, as usual, pretty crap as the albatrosses are only just returning so there is no walking out into the colony allowed until they are sitting. Drove round the rest of the Peninsula which was quite worrying at times as the wind literally blew us off the road a few times! We stopped at Seal Point where a huge Hooker’s Sealion was rolling around in the dunes below where a single White-capped Albatross and thousands of Sooty Shearwaters and Fairy Prions raced by offshore – if there were any other prions I couldn’t make them out! Parking up in a little picnic area outside of town we found another bonus of the van – being able to cook whilst sitting on the end of bed inside it, as torrential rain had joined the party outside now.....The next day the wind had died down and the sun came out so we visited Lanarch Castle with its stunning gardens and then drove back into Dunedin and couldn’t pass up the chance to drive up and down the steepest road in the world – Baldwin Street with its 1 in 2.86 gradient! The van almost ran out of oomph as we struggled to the top in 1st gear!! Looking back down was akin to being at the top of a rollercoaster and the van coped much better on the descent!! [ATTACH]152663[/ATTACH]Good fun, but would hate to live up it and not have a car, and if I did have a car, hope to god that the handbrake worked! We then drove out onto the Mole, near the infamous settlement of Aramoana, on the north side of the bay and got buffeted by the unwelcome return of the super-strong wind and blustery showers. Managed to wedge the ‘scope and vid out the window to get some (pretty good, considering the buffeting and range) footage of the displaying Northern Royal Albatrosses and the shag colony opposite on Taiaora Head. [ATTACH]152659[/ATTACH]We headed back out to the camp spot near Lake Waihola and again cooked in the van as it was now hailing outside....</blockquote>

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