Last word on the weather

Some typical weather this week in Sydney

I didn't need my alarm clock this morning, as I was already awake, lying there listening to the rain lash the windows of my room. At the risk of this blog becoming purely about the weather, over the last few days Sydney has been pounded by a succession of rainstorms. This is all good of course, as I was droning on about before - the catchment area was close to the emergency low levels.

This kind of weather reminds me of a typical British Autumn day - squally showers, strong gusty winds and outturned umbrellas. The trees down our road were given a fearful battering by the wind, sending the already excitable parakeet-things into even more frenzied squawking. In fact, it was so wet that today I actually wore my coat - for the first time since I arrived in Australia in October (not counting the drenchings I got in New Zealand). Mind you, that's nearly eight months, so it's not too bad when you think about it.

Anyway, that's it for talk about the weather - unless there's a freak tornado or we get three feet of snow or something - I think I've covered the topic enough. I know us Brits have that reputation of talking a lot about the weather, but I think even taking account for that I should move on. Tomorrow - tea and cricket!

Winter finally begins

A local happy with the recent weather

I wonder when my award ceremony is going to be? Only last week the city was in dire need of water, in a desperate situation according to the media. I write a short piece about it on here - and what happens? We get three days of rain. However, before I start hiring myself out to other parched communities - the rain here is still far from enough - "Over 10 millimetres of rain has fallen into the Warragamba catchment, but I don't expect that to have any impact unless there is a lot more rain." said a Sydney city water Spokeswoman. Well it had an impact on me as I was walking home on Friday night, I can tell you. Winter seems to have arrived at last, as the days are getting longer after the shortest day on June 21st. It's still comparable to a Scottish summer, but Sydneysiders are out in their coats and scarves, shivering in their offices. We even had the heater on in our flat last night. Still, at least the days are now getting longer, and we move towards the Spring warmth - and an end to these miserable low temperatures of 10C...

Extracting the effluent

Tinder dry canefields in Northern Queensland

Sydney is very much the harbour city, surrounded on all sides by water. On any given weekend thousands of people are on the waterways, taking advantage of the city's greatest resource. At the risk of sounding dramatic, all this water hides a dark secret - which I didn't know about until I started living here. Sydney is almost dying of thirst. Everybody knows Australia is home to some of the largest desert regions in the world, but the sheer scale of the problem is frightening. The NSW State Government is understandably starting to worry about where the water for this growing city (100 new residents arrive each week) is going to come from.

The water supply for Sydney has never been lower - the reservoir levels are at 39.1% of what they should be (as of last week). 35% is considered the emergency level and would trigger the kind of contingency plans that experts keep suggesting, and keep being scoffed at. The current favourite appears to be desalination - the building of a $2bn plant near Bondi could serve the entire East of the city (including me) with drinkable seawater. By 2006 13bn litres of water could be found by drilling groundwater. These are the kinds of schemes that are suggested, but have not yet been implemented.

Despite all the panicking, life for us Sydneysiders isn't that difficult. There are bans on sprinklers and hoses - but nothing more than the equivalent bans during a hot UK summer. I'm not sure we even have a garden hose, to be honest. But it's always on the news, people are talking about the lack of water being the biggest problem Australia will face over the next hundred years - something I take for granted living in damp, predictable Scotland. But then Scotland isn't part of the driest vegetated continent on Earth. 75% of Australia is classified as permanently arid, which is amazing - 3/4 of this country is practically uninhabitable. Many rivers here flow away from the sea, ending in large, useless evaporating pans or stagnant billabongs visited only by jolly swagmen.

The solution for Sydney may be close though. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the National Competition Council has ruled the city's sewers be opened to private companies who want to recycle effluent into useable water. Currently only 3.2% of Sydney's water is recycled - so with a bit of technology and some dirty manual work, the recycling option may be the one that makes Sydney sustainable again - time will tell.

Ku-ring-gai National Park

Cowan Creek - a tributary of the Hawkesbury River, in winter

One thing that I'm always conscious of is that I've not really gone to any bush yet. Proper Australian outback stuff just isn't within public transport range of Sydney. However, there are plenty of National Parks about an hour North of the city, so today I got the train to Berowra and walked through Ku-ring-Gai National Park. The name means 'belongs to the Aboriginies'- the Aboriginal people in SE Australia refer to themselves as 'kuri'. The National Park runs up to the edge of the Hawkesbury River, and the path I took wandered along the shoreline of the river.

The upper parts of the trail reminded me of a Scottish pine forest, but eventually things took on a more bush-like feel. On the way down I took a shortcut to miss out a long hairpin bend in the path, and met a group of elderly walkers coming up. One of them cheerfully admonished me for doing so - "These short cuts are for uptrackers, to make it easier for us" he said. So that was me told. After beating him to death, I carried on and eventually popped out of the bush at Waratah Bay, named after the official flower of NSW - not that I have any idea what it looks like. Here there was an estuary-style mudflat (always something that's been close to my heart) so I stopped for something to eat. After a minute or so, the mud started to come alive and dozens of small crabs appeared and began feeding. If you know me, you'll know I love that kind of thing, and I spent an enjoyable half-hour munching Doritos whilst watching the little guys at work.

The path followed the banks of the creek, in some places it actually was the bank. About three hours of pushing through ferns and bushes, and I found the small singpost that pointed out the track to Kuring Gai station. The day was another cracker - blue sky all the way, but in the forest it was dark and quiet. The odd passing speedboat and twittering birds made the only noise. I talked to a family of walkers who had seen a snake, but sadly I didn't spot one. The park is also home to Koalas and something called a Powerful Owl - but again I didn't see any (maybe just as well with the Owl). Mind you, it's not every day you get to have lunch with a colony of mudcrabs, is it?

At a loose end in Manly

I didn't see any bandicoots

This weekend Australians celebrate the Queen's birthday - and everyone is given a holiday on the Monday. Odd, considering as most younger Australians couldn't care less about the distant monarchy - and odder still because back home us Brits don't get a holiday for her birthday (loyal subjects indeed). As if the oddness couldn't get any higher, New Zealanders got their Queen's birthday holiday last week. Anyway, I toyed with the idea of going to work to make some sort of point about the old dear not giving days off to her immediate subjects, but I couldn't be bothered. Instead I had planned to go up North to Mount Kuring Gai and do a bit of bushwalking. You can imagine my consternation however when I arrived at Town Hall Station to find all trains going North cancelled because of track work, leaving me stuck in the city. The irony of a British bank holiday wasn't lost on me, I can tell you. At least it wasn't raining. So I decided right there on the spot to switch to my emergency Plan B - which in all contingencies is the same - go to Manly.

I love Manly - it's probably the only other part of the city I'd ever live in. I've been several times of course, so today I visited the only part I'd not yet explored - North Head. As you know if you read this blog often, the entrance to Sydney Harbour is guarded by two craggy lumps that curl into the Pacific like giant fists. Called North and South Head, they are both National Parks, and both give great views of the Ocean and back to the city (South Head was near where I was the other week in Vaucluse). So I had a walk around, looked back at the city for the umpteenth time - it was all very pleasant. I didn't see any bandicoots (I suppose they are nocturnal), but there were dozens of black and white birds flashing through the bushes - New Holland Honeyeaters according to the signs. It also said you could sometimes see migratory whales at this time of year - but once again my luck with whales was nil and I didn't see any. So I walked around in the winter sunshine before strolling back down to Manly wharf and the ferry to the city. Not a bad Plan B really - thanks Queeny!

Australian banks

I don't have a picture of a bank - but I do have one of a parakeet

I think I've already mentioned how badly you get treated by Australian banks. Well now I can give you an example. I opened my monthly statement this morning and was mildly surprised to see I'd been charged $78 for 'other transactions'. After further examination I realised I accrued these charges when in New Zealand - at $5 a pop every time I withdrew money from an ATM over there. Apparently the usual $1.50 'other ATM withdrawl fee' is bumped up to $5 when the other ATM is in another country. I had no idea of this of course, so managed to rack up almost $80 in fees in three weeks. That translates to GBP32, but it's more the principle than the actual money that annoys me.

Every bank statement comes with what they call a 'transaction summary', but what I call a 'charge sheet'. Every month I get 5 free ATM withdrawls, 2 free chances to use my debit card, and 2 free direct debits. Anything over that and I get charged 50c, 30c, and 30c respectively. Again, the fees aren't exactly epic in size, but when you consider I that I have a basic minimum of 6 direct debits every month (two rent deductions and four wages additions) essentially I get charged for getting paid. If you go to the counter in a bank for help, that's $2 - if you write someone a cheque, that's another $1. From the 1st of August the direct debit charge is increasing to 50c.

I know I'm ranting a bit here, but coming from the UK banks tend to leave you alone unless you go financially daft. Maybe in the rest of the world this is what banks are like. I've been in my branch enough times to have been ignored and even sneered at once by a Manager. But hey, I've got to keep my money somewhere - and if I store it inside my matress I'd probably lose my flat deposit (and then get charged by the bank)...

Watson's Bay to Rose Bay

If I had to choose one photo to sum up Sydney - this would be it

If you're on the South side of the harbour, and go as North-East as you can, eventually you'll come to Watson's Bay. This is one of the top weekend day trips for us Sydney folk, and when I went on Sunday the ferry was packed. I've been a few times before - but this time I wanted to walk South along a coastal trail winding along the harbourfront. After passing the daytrippers eating their fish and chips I got to Parsley Bay, a narrow cove surrounded by fancy houses. The suburb round here is Vaucluse - home to the older, richer Sydneysider - and the homes reflect that. Bristling with high fences, gates, guard dog signs and cameras pointing accusingly at the street. Of course I had a look through as many gates as possible and waved at all the cameras as I went past, weaving my way through the Mercedes parked halfway up the pavement.

As with the Manly-Spit Bridge walk on the Northern side, this walk wound its way from a succession of small coves and beaches - from Vaucluse Bay onwards. At Shark Bay the netting to keep those creatures away had been removed for 'cleaning', leaving an impotent-looking rope and a few brave swimmers. There hasn't been a fatal shark attack in the harbour for almost 40 years, but it happened just up the coast from Shark Bay. Onwards the path went, eventually coming out at Rose Bay - another affluent suburb - where I got the bus back to the city. It was a great day - I think I needed that to remind me how great Sydney is after my epic trip to New Zealand. It's reaffirmed my belief that Sydney is more than where I work, it's where I live too...

Working...part two

Your author hard at work in his office this morning

So this is me in my new office, hiring and firing. I've never had an office before, and it's quite exciting. I'm here replacing some unfortunate HR Manager who was recently diagnosed with cancer. There are three of us in the department, but only two rooms - so I've been put in the office of the sick bloke, and have it all to myself. The job consists of helping out the other HR Manager and the HR Assistant - so I'm essentially an Assistant HR Assistant. General phone stuff, sending out letters, that kind of thing. But all in the comfort of my own office (and a big one at that).

I was taken for a tour this morning - I'm working for a large pathology company, so there are all kinds of laboratories and white-coated boffins wandering around. Plastic bags of various fluids (and yes, solids too) arrive and are examined - thankfully not too close to where we are. It was impressive stuff though, lots of biochemical equipment and ranks of people staring down microscopes. Up in the HR department though it's just computers and phones. Still, it's a good place to work, the two others in HR are really nice. Bus journey's a long one though - no chance of me walking here, unfortunately...

Back in the temp cycle

Hyde Park, Sydney - part of my new walk to work

It's tough to come home after a good holiay, but I've found the perfect solution - go on holiday somewhere, and then take another holiday from that. When you get back from holiday 2 you're still on holiday 1 and the disappointment is eased somewhat. If only people knew about this. Anyway, so here I am back in Sydney - currently in the grip of an evil Autumn chill (high of 'only' 19C today, still t-shirt weather for me). Not much happened in the three weeks I was away, apart from one of my flatmates slipping a disc in her back on her bus to work, although she's since recovered.

Speaking of which, I finally managed to get through to my temping agency this afternoon, and they found me another job within two hours, which is pretty good. If you work long hours, temp agencies love you for the cash you make them - so when I turned up there fo a chat three of them were there to ask how I was getting on. I like to think it was because of my personality rather than my 50hr weeks, but I'm not so sure. Anyway, they almost immediately found me another job starting on Tuesday at the Australian Blood Tranfusion Service, which sounds mildly interesting (although it is a temp job, so it can't be that interesting). It's more money than the pensions place, but is a 45 minute bus ride from the centre of Sydney (North Ryde for Mr.106) - so I'll have to take a book, and avoid slipping any discs...

Three weeks are over

The awesome Franz-Josef glacier advances

Well, that's it - my three weeks over here in New Zealand are up. This afternoon I fly back to Sydney to carry on with my 'other' holiday though, so it's not all bad. Although I will be back on the temp ladder for another three months of work, but it's all to put towards the next of my journeys (to Japan in September). Until then hopefully I'll make it over to Melbourne for a week or so, but we'll see how things pan out. Certainly I'll not be able to go anywhere like NZ for a while. What an amazing country, it's been an incredible few weeks. A huge thanks to Jules and Mel in Christchurch, and Edd and Meesh in Wellington for letting me invade their living rooms for a few days. It really made all the difference to what I could do on the trip.

The highlights are easy to pick out - walking on a glacier is something I'll not forget in a hurry, as was the fjord cruise into Milford Sound. Getting within touching distance of all those rare birds in the deep south, and the various walks and views are staggering - I've managed to avoid going on and on about the Lord of the Rings (because there are plenty of people here who do), but the scenery in the film is very real, and it's everywhere you look. Anybody who likes doing things outdoors has to come here, it's stunning. I'll certainly be coming back, there are still large parts of the country to explore (like most of the North Island), and of course I need to go back to Taupo in summer and see if it improves. But I've got several other places to visit in the meantime...

The treasures of Te Papa

Your author and a giant fossilised Ammonite


Perfect museum weather today, so for my last day in Wellington I paid a visit to the city's largest attraction - Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum. The guidebook suggested a full day to explore, which was about right as I was in there for 5hrs and rushed a few sections. It had everything from geology to photography, with a hefty chunk of maori history too, of course. As usual it was the stuffed animals that got my attention, particularly the birds I'd been looking at on my travels down south. I even managed to identify a spider we saw in the house the other day (a black-headed jumping spider). As you can see, they had the largest fossil ammonite I've ever seen, and plenty of other interesting stuff. Anyobdy thinking of coming to Wellington - it's a must-see, simple as that. But then I've always been a museum geek.

Which brings me nicely onto Star Wars - tonight myself and Edd went to the Embassy Theatre to watch the final Star Wars film, Revenge of the Sith. The Embassy is a local legend, it was refitted for the World Premiere of the Lord of the Rings in 2003 and is massive, with leather chairs and 1920's decor and fittings. It's a long way from the Preston Odeon where I saw the first Star Wars film all those years ago. How apt that I saw the final part on the other side of the world. I can still remember being taken by my Dad to see the Return of the Jedi (and I'm fairly sure the other two, earlier, films on the same day). Like any impressionable 10yr-old I wanted to jump into the screen and be a part of it - I immediately set about collecting all the figures (still somewhere at home in a battered cardboard box). So what did I think of the new film? Well, considering how much I hated the two previous new films I really liked this one - it was a great way to end my trip. But more of that tomorrow...

Sunday in the sanctuary

The Wellington funicular railway makes it's way to the Botanic Gardens

Taupo was unfortunately let down by the weather - in summer I'm sure it's a great place to be, but in the incessant heavy rain it wasn't really. I'm not sorry I went, but with hindsight I could have used those couple of days in Kaikoura to wait for the whales - but hey, these things happen. I'm now back in Wellington, my final stop on the trip. Today was Sunday, so we had an easy day and started off with a couple of bacon rolls before heading out for a drive.

We rolled around the harbour road, looking at the views of the cityscape on the other side. Along the winding road were native Wellingtonians going about their Sunday routine - running, surfing, biking, sailing, fishing. Like Australia people here obviously get out when they can and take advantage of their location. We continued to the surfing beach at Lyall Bay and had fish and chips (or 'fush and chups' as the locals say) standing on the seawall watching the planes roar off from Wellington airport. After that we paid a visit to the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary - the world's first urban wildlife refuge. Surrounded by a Jurassic Park-like chain fence (to keep the predators out), it's a 250 hectare conservation area for native plants and birds. There are no cages inside - the birds go where they like and it's up to you to spot them. We saw a few, and had a good walk through the dank, green forest. The highlight for me were the hollow trees which you could open to reveal weta - NZ's largest native insect - a finger-long striped cricket with large jaws and serrated legs - very Jurassic Park...

Taupo in the wet

The Craters of the Moon Geothermal area, just north of Taupo, in the rain

When I got up this morning the heavy rain had eased off and been replaced by thick, grey clouds. It wasn't a question of deciding to risk it, I'd come all this way North so I had to get out there. I walked up to a natural hot springs just out of the town centre, and dunked my hand in - it was the temperature of a warm bath. The River Waikato flows from Lake Taupo all the way to Auckland, making it NZ's longest. It's also one of the clearest I've ever seen - you could see the bottom up to a depth of several metres, it was amazing. I walked along the bank to the Huka Falls, a narrowing of the channel that funnels the river through in a raging torrent. Unfortunately I had to share the viewpoint with two busloads of American schoolkids, but they soon left and things quietened down.

After the Falls I walked on to find a geothermal area I'd been reading about, just as the rain started again. I got to the Craters of the Moon area and was able to walk around the boardwalks with nobody else in sight. It was really eerie, the dense coulds of steam mixing with the rain and hanging in the valley. Large holes belched steam and vapour, giving off that characteristic sulphurous smell. The rain was really annoying though, and as I was leaving it got even stronger. Thankfully on the road out I was rescued by a battered grey Ford that stopped and offered me a lift. Inside were three backpackers (always the most trusting of people) who I found out were staying at the same hostel as me. So we lurched off in the $200 car and drove back to Huka Falls for a look, and then back into Taupo and the dry hostel...

Volcanoes young and old

Mount Ruapehu (2797m), NZ's most active volcano

Up early today for a commuter jostle on the way into Wellington to catch my bus North. The train I was due to get from Porirua was late, but I managed to just make the bus in time - which promptly drove to Porirua to pick people up. Ah well. The trip took just under six hours, but there were plenty of stops and a lunch break. The service I was on went straight across the Central Plateau of the North Island - an almost alienesque landscape which has been alternately carved and blasted by volcanoes. We passed Mount Ruapehu, the highest and most active volcano in the country. I remember doing a case study on the 1995 eruption there when I was in college - you can clearly see the jagged summit where it ripped apart.

After another couple of hours we arrived in Taupo (pronounced Toe-po), the main town in the region and the centre of the tourist trade around the Tongariro National Park. Today Taupo is known as a trout fishing centre, but the lake it stands on (the largest in NZ) was formed by one of the greatest volcanic explosions of all time. 26,000 years ago a 'supervolcano' erupted here (much like the one brooding under Yellowstone at the moment). It blew out 800 cubic kilometres of rock - for a comparison the eruption of Mt St Helens in 1980 produced 3 cubic km. The Taupo eruption destroyed most of the North Island - even islands 800km away were buried in ash 11cm deep. Yikes. Thankfully it's now extinct, and the 600 square km lake formed in the crater...

Back in a capital

Myself and young Mr. Jack Ballinger, aged 5 months

After my disappointment in Kaikoura with the weather I managed to get a second free ride up with the Stray bus to the tiny coastal town of Picton for the ferry. It was still pouring with rain, so I don't think the whale watchers would have been out, but our ferry had no trouble ploughing across the Cook Straight to the North Island. The crossing took four hours, and typically the Stray passengers lodged in the bar for the duration. At the other side, I said goodbye to the rest of them, as they were hostelling overnight and then driving up to Auckland today. I took the free bus into the city and met my old friend Edd who I was staying with for my time in Wellington. Edd, Michelle and baby Jack emigrated here just after Christmas and I'd obviously not seen them since my leaving night in Edinburgh last October (I'd not seen Jack ever, of course).

After a hearty breakfast I caught a lift into the city with Meesh the next morning. We had a quick walk around, looking at the sights of the city before meeting Edd for lunch. Young Jack, who's five months old, was asleep by this time - although a bagpipe parade for Wellington Uni graduation soon put a stop to that. We ate in a food court and then split for the afternoon as Edd had to get back to work and Meesh and the baby had baby-stuff to do. I went for a walk, and then up a funicular railway to the top of one of the major hills overlooking the city. Wellington has a reputation for being windy, but the weather was really mild, so I walked around the gardens for a bit taking pictures before I went to the Museum of Wellington, the City and the Sea. Or rather I tried to, as I was politely informed the museum was closed for renovation. So I went to a pub and had a pint before I was due to meet Edd and go back to his house.

Tomorrow it's off on the road again, up North on a 6-hour bus journey to the alpine town of Taupo. I'll be there for two nights, before it's back to Edd's sofa for a couple of days and the end of my trip...

Too wet for whales

What I was missing


My first majorly bad news on the trip today - the whale watching trip I'd booked and was looking forward to had to be cancelled because of the weather. So I'm here anyway in Kaikoura with not much to do for an afternoon. It's a real shame as I'm the only member of my family not to have seen a whale and this was my chance - a major pod of Sperm whales live just off the coast here. But the rain and cloud came in this morning, and although a boat went out earlier (and saw loads of whales, apparently), they won't risk going back out. What a bugger. Ah well.

So my Stray trip came to an end - although Spike kindly gave me a lift up here from Christchurch this morning (and I'll jump on his bus to Picton tomorrow for the North Island ferry). I had such a great time on that bus trip - I was going to do that route on my own, but going on the bus was a much better idea. I've still got over a week left in NZ, and arrived in the coastal town of Kaikoura this morning. 'Kai' means food and 'koura' means lobster in the local maori - not that many backpackers get to try them. The major industry here is whale watching (but not today). It reminds me of a grey English seaside town, lots of hardy people trying to enjoy themselves despite the pouring rain. Eat the sandwiches in the car weather, that kind of thing.

Yesterday was my last day in Christchurch staying with Julie, so her boyfriend drove us out into the Waipara Valley for some wine tasting. It was a very civilised way to spend an afternoon, and although I'm no wine expert (although I do know not to put Red Bull in) I still managed to appreciate the difference between the basic types. The wine-makers we talked to were bemoaning a difficult Autumn that cut back their crop, but I presume they just put the price of the wine up. We visited five wineries and had tried a fair few by the end of the afternoon, but by that point my basic wine palate had been so overloaded it was all I could do to keep saying things like 'Hmmm, this is slightly more oaky than the last one'...

Where flightless birds once ruled

A very blurry Yellow-Eyed Penguin - the rarest penguin in the world

The Foveaux ferry was less crazy than the day before, much to the relief of some on board our bus. We left at dawn, as we had a long day heading through the south-eastern tip of New Zealand. The coastal region here forms part of the Catlins Wilderness Area - a region of isolated forests and wildlife reserves. The area was once the haunt of the Moa - a gigantic flightless bird that reached 3m (9ft) in height.

Our first stop was another first for me - one of the world's most extensive petrified forests, at Curio Bay. From the cliff top it looks like any other rocky shore - but when you get down amongst the ankle-high boulders it hits you that they are tree stumps. 160 million years ago a cataclysmic event felled an entire forest, and then another immediately afterwards covered the remains forever. As with other fossils, the trees at Curio Bay are incredibly detailed - it's even possible to count rings on some of the stumps.

After a few more scenic stops at waterfalls, bays and inlets we finished the day at the aptly named Roaring Bay, to look at a very speical bird. The Hoiho is the world's rarest penguin as fewer than 3000 remain, living only in the sub-Antarctic islands and the southern tip of NZ. Every evening they come ashore from long feeding trips and clamber up the hillsides of Roaring Bay. Also known as the Yellow-Eyed Penguin, they are the only known solitary penguin species, preferring to live in single burrows - and they are very timid. Spike told us we'd be lucky to see two or three, but within an hour we counted ten emerge from the surf. Crouching quietly on the windy hillside, we were probably 100m from the knee-high birds as they staggered up the path to their nests. It was great - these were truly wild birds, and rare ones at that, going about their business in front of us. I just wish they were easier to photograph!

As South as I'll ever be

The weka - a flightless kiwi-type bird found only in Southern NZ

Take a look at a map of New Zealand - most people know there are two main islands, North and South. But if you look at the bottom of the South Island you'll see another, tucked away like an afterthought. This is Stewart Island, probably the most southerly point I'll ever reach. The maori legend has it that the demigod Maui caught a huge fish from his canoe using a bone hook baited with blood from his own nose. This fish - Te Ika a Maui (the fish of Maui) - became the North Island of New Zealand. His canoe - Te Waka o Maui - became the South Island, and Stewart Island was the anchor that held his canoe in place.

Stewart Island is roughly triangular in shape and is 65km by 40km wide. 85% of the island is national park, and thanks to it's isolation has developed a variety of wierd and wonderful wildlife (and locals). The only settlement is called Oban (after the Scottish town), and we got there by ferry from the mainland town of Bluff (NZ's most southerly). The crossing took an hour, and was in a small but high-powered boat that plunged through the famously violent seas of the Foveaux Straight. The water out there was a brilliant dark green, and boiled to about 3m, throwing the small boat around. Thankfully I've always been good on the water, and it was good fun having the old stomach lurch as the boat breached wave after wave. Oban really reminded me of a small Scottish fishing town, that kind of off-season, rundown feel, but still with people going about their business. After putting our bags into the cottages we were staying in, a few of us caught a 6-person water taxi to a sheltered island called Ulva - a bird watcher's paradise.

Despite being only 250 hectares, the island is renowned for wildlife as there are no predators at all. As a result, the rare NZ ground-living birds can survive here undisturbed. Within seconds of getting off the taxi, a weka sidled up to us - a kiwi relative that looks like a round, flightless grouse. We also saw the wonderfully named tui, kaka, kakariki and kereru. Some of these were only introduced as a dozen or so pairs, and have slowly colonised the island. Midway along a path in the cold-weather rainforest (everything was green and covered in thick moss) we stopped and waited for five minutes. It was amazing, birds appeared from everywhere - from small robin-like birds to the kereru (a black and white pigeon the size of a chicken). It was a great trip - and a fitting one too, seeing as I'm about as far from home as I can get, you'd certainly hope the wildlife would be on the unusual side...

Water that falls up

Milford Sound - hard to appreciate from this, but it was incredible

An early start out of Queenstown today. I did like it, for such a small place there's loads going on. It's a bit too backpackery for me (slightly rich I know), summed up by something I overheard in our hostel. A group of young lads were drinking wine in the corridor before going out. As I walked by them, one of them cheerfully turned to his mate and said "I'm not a fan of wine - but if you put a bit of Red Bull in, it takes the edge off"

Milford Sound is one of New Zealand's biggest tourist attractions. A 22km long glacial fjord (or fiord as they call it), it's very popular with us sightseers. After today, I can see why. Firstly the weather was absolutely shocking - the sunny weather of the last three days gave way to heavy downpours. But that's to be expected - Milford is one of the wettest places in the world, averaging 8 metres of rain a year. Most of it seemed to fall today, as we took a two hour cruise down the fjord in the company of dozens of Chinese bus trippers. The Sound is famous for it's sheer cliffs - the highest of which (Mitre Peak) plunges almost 1700m straight into the water. It was awesome - I went on the roof in a howling gale and stood there getting soaked, open-mouthed at what I was seeing. Massive waterfalls tumbled over the cliffs, the water falling less than a third of the way to the fjord before the wind blew it away and up into the clouds. You could actually see this - a circular pattern of water falling, spraying sideways, and then becoming finer and rising back into the cloud. Larger waterfalls crashed into the black sea, sending us through huge plumes of water like you see at Niagara. All around there were vertical walls of rock hundreds of metres high, all being blasted by water - either as white falls, grey mist or black seas. It was utterly mind blowing - and after the Grand Canyon, Milford Sound is the most stunning thing I've ever seen.

Action stations in Queenstown

Queenstown - Lake Wakatipu with the Remarkables mountain range



Day five of the tour is the only one not to involve bus travel - it's a free day in Queenstown. The epitome of a big budget resort town (according to my Lonely Planet guide), Queenstown is totally driven by the booming industry in dangerous sports. If they've got it, you can jump off, over, under, onto, or into it. So what adrenalin-fuelled crazyness did I get up to?

Erm...I went for a walk round a lake. Oh, and I went to a kiwi sanctuary. I did see somebody do a bungy jump - but I was safely standing on a viewing gallery on the side of a hilltop. I dunno, dangerous sports just don't appeal to me. What's the point of paying $150 to jump off a platform on an elasticated rope? A Dutch bloke off our bus did a bungy jump so we all went to watch. To be honest, when he launched himself out of what looked like a garden shed bolted to a hillside, it did look fun - but 10 seconds later he was being winched back.

Maybe a skydive would give me more money's worth - but for the price of that I could extend my trip here by three days. Anyway, full credit to the people that have a go. A middle-aged Chinese man who jumped before our Dutch mate hesitated just as he was about to leap off. As a result, he whacked the bungy platform with his backside and flopped over the edge like a starfish being thrown back into the sea by a fisherman. After a few painful bounces, they pulled him back up and he walked off. As he passed us, he said that he'd enjoyed it.