We went for a walk up to Diamond Lake…the sun was out but the wind was howling around, tearing up trees and flinging great clouds of dust in the air…

Everything is changing from winter to spring, but I have never seen it happen in september before: the rivers and streams are swollen, the blossom is coming out, grass is growing, the sheep are in lambing season, the mountains are slushy and people are moving on.

There is also the unsettling need for a new place to live, worthwhile work and some commendable purpose.

Its all very fluid and transient…

For my birthday this year, I’d like some stability please.

We had a break from Wanaka and took a trip down to the Catlins Coast which is at the southern most tip of New Zealand…there is nothing after that until you hit Antarctica…

The place is full of wildlife…I finally got to see some Penguins (they are tiny and well clumsy) and Seals (lazy – just sleep on the beach all day) and Sea Lions (big mean dog/bear like brutes but this didnt stop some stupid tourists going way too close) and the end of the rainbow (no treasure sadly)

We went on some great and relaxing long walks on the beaches and around the coastline. It kind off reminded me of Wales or Cornwall until I noticed the many palm trees dotted around and the 2.5m long 300kg Sea Lions…

We went over the mountains to Haast on the west coast to try to find some penguins…

After trekking around loads of beaches and through the rainforests, we saw a bunch of penguin signposts and info boards but not a single damn penguin, but it was good fun anyway…

The west coast of the south island has this incredible ancient weathered feel, with massive lush rain forests catching all the rain that falls as snow on our side of the mountains, and miles and miles of empty beaches with huge pounding surf and far too many sand flys.

I’m on a proper mission to see penguins now…stay tuned.

It’s holiday season down here in NZ. What I failed to realise until we went up to Cardrona was that this means the resorts are absolutely packed with thousands of complete idiots…(imagine everywhere about as busy as a northern hemisphere Christmas)

So after waiting 30 minutes to ride the first lift, we headed out the back of the resort and went for a long hike. Later in the day, with the queues still ridiculous, we came off the mountain and went for a wander through the old Cardrona township.

To celebrate Flo finishing a mammoth 9 day stretch of work, we went for a wander to a place called Diamond Lake. Its pretty snowy in Wanaka right now so it was slippery work getting up to the viewing platform above the lake, but the patterns on the ice looked really surreal from there. You can continue the walk up in to the mountains of Mount Aspiring National Park and we will definitely be going back in the spring for a longer walk…