Another NZ postcard...

Barry and I are continuing to have a ball as we drive around the South Island of NZ, so here is another postcard. On the advice of a friend, whilst we were in Dunedin we went to visit Tunnel Beach. For some reason we thought it was kind of like drive up to the beach walk a hundred metres, walk through this tunnel some bloke dug through the rock to get to the beach. Laugh. It was an hour down and back, down some of the steepest slippery slopes I’ve ever met but boy was it worth it. We finally made it down and saw how the man had cut a tunnel through the cliff so he could access the beach. Amazing. 

And then we accidentally came across this guy – a young male New Zealand Sea Lion having a nap. Glad we didn’t wake him!

 We headed west from Dunedin via the Catlins – wild and rugged country right at the bottom of the island, with not many people or places in it. We hit the jackpot when we arrived in Papatowai and discovered the Lost Gypsy Gallery – a kind of gallery/bus/theatre made of found objects and filled with self-winding automata by Blair Somerville. I’ll let you look it up to see how amazing it really is; but here are some images of our brief visit there. They also made awesome coffee in the coffee caravan next door.

Then we headed along to Te Anau, and stopped by the Lake. The sun is high in the sky until late evening, so with fish and chips besides us and a glass of cold NZ sauvignon blanc, all was well with the world.