The Sobos on Cruising, Castles & Exotic Creatures

I know, wrong color and no tree but I still thought of Ferdinand...

This is a molting Yellow Eyed Penguin, the rarest penguin in the world.

Over-looking Nugget Point in the southern part of the south island .

We are in the town of Gore, on our way to Te Anau, close to where we pick up the ride to Doubtful Sound. Believe it or not, we are sitting in the parking lot of MacDonald's using their free WiFi. David just broke down to order a burger and we shall see how that goes. We are trying to chase the sun and hope to find more of it in TeAnau as the weather is supposed to be good for the next three days up in the Fiordland region. Today it is raining up there. David has been really having fun with his new lens. It is really pretty countryside we passby and we are having fun.


The trip through the Catlins area of the South Island was very fun, and we were so fortunate to have wonderful weather these last two days. We first landed in the little town of Kaka, found a lovely campground with warm showers and kitchen facilities, fixed an early dinner and headed out to Nugget Point to watch the Yellow-Eyed Penguins come in from a day of fishing. The viewing station is quite far away, so the pictures from that day don't really show these amazing birds very well.

Looking pretty ragged with all this "molting" going on.

Sa

Yesterday, though, after venturing off the road to the beautiful Purakaunui Waterfalls, we made our way to Curio Bay, settled into a a comfortable, rustic campsite, hiked the bluff separating Porpoise and Curio Bay, and then walked to the stairs onto the rock beach to find more of the rarest, endangered Yellow-eyed Penguins. They are moulting now, and many of them just come out from nests along the shore to stretch and drink, but some still manage to go out daily and hunt, returning at dusk. We were lucky to see both and David got some great shots. The photos give you just a taste of our continuing adventures. We woke up to rain early this morning and hit the road. Onward to the Fiordland National Park and TeAnau and it is from there we will leave for our overnight excursion onto Doubtful Sound. We hope for sunshine and shimmering waters!  Wish us luck!  Love to all,  Suzi 

This Yellow Eyed penguin isn't molting yet and looks so much happier.

Fruit stand where you took your produce and left the money in a jar. Try that one in the States !!

Our campsite near Roxburg, one of the prettiest ones.

These were race horses and the owner would run them 20 times around the track every morning.
He would tie them to his truck and take off, seemed to work OK for him.



These guys were "cleaning up" the sheep, shearing only around their tail ends.



They did this about twice a year.

These two guys were the owners and they invited us off the road to get closer for a better look.
Just like all New Zealanders, they couldn't of been more friendly.

Larnach Castle

Suzi said to give all single women a heads up on the fact that this guy, Ron, is cool and available. Just sayin'.

A albatross in flight off the Otago Penninsula.



The albatross is one of the worlds best gliders, the cruise effortlessly.



This place was as pretty inside as out. And great views to boot !!!

OOOps!  I forgot to tell you a little about the Otago Penninsula. It seems so long ago! It is Saturday, Mar 26 and that was way back last Wed!  We did have a wonderful day with our Canadian friend, Ron, who reminded us both of your bro Jon in so many ways. We both drove our Escapee Vans through unreal sheep countryside to what is known as The Larnach Castle, built in 1871. It was quite enjoyable reading the history of this Victorian style villa, and it was still fun wandering the premises taking too many pictures. After having warm cups of tea and coffee, we drove out the very end to the Royal Albatross Center just as the sun poked out for the afternoon. We did catch a view of some albatross with their magnificant wing spans and enjoyed the fresh air. We said our good-byes to Ron and headed for the Portebello Holiday Park, walked into town for a wonderful dinner at the 1908 Cafe, and left the next morning for the Catlins Conservation Reserve.  -S.

David's Treatise on Driving

It has taken me a while but I'm now feeling comfortable driving on the other side of the car and going down the "wrong" side of the road. It took awhile, but as I said, it now feels almost normal. I still turn on the windshield wipers every time I use the turn indicator as they are located on the other side of the steering wheel than what us "Yanks" are use to and the "round abouts" now seem like the great ideas they are. We should use them back in the states; they keep traffic flowing quite smoothly without the need of stop signs or worse yet stop lights. Of course you do have to be ready to jump when there is a small (and I do mean small ) gap in the traffic, and I still have to really concentrate as to where my destination is and what lane I need to be in, but thankfully there isn't that much traffic here for the most part and only in the large cities do things really get hairy. 

Another thing that takes a bit of getting used to is the one lane bridges. I guess the New Zealand Dept. of Public Works thought it would save some money if they only built the bridges wide enough for one lane. So as you approach a bridge, you have to make sure there isn't someone already on it coming toward you or that there isn't someone approaching form the other side who has the right a way. That's right, one direction of traffic (and I haven't been able to find out which way or why) has the right of way. So as you drive up to a bridge, you check to see if the stop line in the road is on your side or not before you start across. It all sounds confusing, and at first it was, but like I said I'm getting the hang of it and keep your fingers crossed for us that when panic time comes, I will react correctly. That will be the true test, and I hope I miss that day of school !!!  See ya ( I hope !!)  David