South Island New Zealand Christchurch to Invercargill

Our friends Rick and Cindy from Boston, were on a biking hiking trip and had just arrived in Christchurch which was on the east coast.  The beauty of this country is nothing is really all that far away, the roads are just a wee bit challenging.  No worries, mate, we drove cross island to enjoy a wonderful evening visiting and catching up as it had been some time we had seen them.  They were so impressed with NZ, and our idea of free camping, they returned to Boston, sold their home and are now back in NZ doing exactly what we did.

Our next memorable stop was Aoraki/Mt. Cook.  This is the Rocky Mountains of New Zealand complete with snow. 

We had been looking forward to seeing good friends Rob and Margie Kyles Sv Windstar.  We me these two lovely people in New Caledonia last year and created memories to last a lifetime.

Rob is a master carpenter by trade and  built their lovely home on a quiet acreage in Wanaka, located in the lower center of the south island.  We spent a couple of days with them getting caught up and  visiting with the relees (mom & dad and Uncle). 

One fact of South Island New Zealand that was impressed upon us and is indisputable

...there are sheep everywhere, until quite recently there were 3 times the number of sheep to people...approx 3 million to one million...

Wanaka happens to be the center of the universe when it comes to New Zealand Sheep Dog trials.  We had heard about this from our sailing friends Fran and Richard (Sv Red) who visit each year.  We were excited to have our first opportunity to enjoy this unique spectator sport spending a day with the locals.  We arrived early and were welcomed by a couple of gentlemen who were having friendly banter between themselves.  We had no idea we were in the presence of Sheep Dog Trial Royalty, Mr. I. (Ginger Anderson and his friend and rival Mr. Barry Hobbs.  

Ginger was Barry welcomed Kaija and I like we were old friend and not the novice nosy tourists we actually were.  Here I am standing next to one of NZ's premier dog handlers and owners of one of the largest sheep farms in the world.  Mr. Ginger Anderson.

Both of these gentleman were competing with their Headers and Huntaways.  Headers are silent, Huntaways are not…they are the barkers.   This is Gingers #1 Header.

It was amazing to watch how man and dog communicate thru a series of hand signals or whistles and just how efficiently the dogs respond to achieve the desired result.  As we were the only non-residents (tourists) there, we were adopted into the group and enjoyed a fun day with this relaxed and sociable group.  Our hosts were DJ & AM McRae at the Alpha Burn Station.

   

We departed Wanaka and drove to Queenstown located on Lake Wakatipu.  We enjoyed a fun day sightseeing on the TSS Earnslaw (known as the Lady of the Lake). 

This twin screw steamer has served the community for more than 100 years.  It is the last remaining commercial passenger-carrying coal-fired steam ship in the southern hemisphere.

From here the coastal roads leads to the southern tip of New Zealand.  Invercargill and Bluff. 

Our reasons for coming here was two-fold.  #1 it is the southernmost tip of NZ and #2 it was where we hoped to see the elusive little Blue Penguin.  No joy and #2…and yes they are elusive…however, One out of two ain’t bad.  We had now completed the trip from the northern most tip to the southern most tip of New Zealand.