Time flies

Christmas has come and gone. Time flies. Just to clear up a small matter it was the phone that was returned to K, not the toilet roll. After Christchurch came Oamaru, famous for penguins and Janet Frame. She died a few years ago but E and K saw the yellow eyed penguins after standing on a cliff top in a hurracane for about an hour. They took in a service of 9 lessons and carols then dashed off to see the blue penguins who come ashore at dusk which is about 9 in Oamaru. It was funny. You pay your dollars and are shepharded out to a stand where you sit and wait. No talking but there was a commentary. The penguins come ashore about 15 at a time, hop up the rocks, prune themselves, look around, then make a dash for it over the road under the fence and into their burrows. After that Dunedin which is a university city and very pleasant. They took the scenic route down for no other reason than the lady in the second hand bookshop said that J F had been in a mental hospital down that way. It's a backpackers place now. Called Asylum Lodge. Dunedin is famous for it's albatross. E spent $40 to stare at 3 royal albatrosses sitting on eggs. K spent 20 visiting an old fort then watching the albatross flying around. E saw them too, later. Dunedin also boasts the worlds steepest street with a gradient of 1:2.86. Made their way down to Invercargill on Christmas Eve stopping to see the most southern point of the south island and even a petrified forest. Sounds frightening but it isn't, then changed their minds and pushed on to Te Anua grabbing a bottle of wine and a lamb joint on the way. Found a place at the first inn they asked at, prices have risen but this was perfect. Did a walk along the Kepler track, a small one along the Routeborne track and E did one this morning along the Kepler. It was great. No stops for drinks, pees, food or photos, she just hiked on for 14 km. Most of it alongside a wide clean swiftly flowing river. They managed to meet up at the other end after a bit of confusion. You need a boat to get to the Milford track so not this time. They did sail up the Milford Sound and even the Doubtful Sound, one in pouring rain and one in sunshine. They are not Sounds at all but fiords. Look up the difference. Describing mountains is impossible. Majestic, awesome, fabulous, words are too small. To get to Milford you have to drive through a long, narrow dark steep tunnel for over 1km. In sympathy with Sweden E and K got out of the car while waiting for the lights to change and fooled around in the snow there. How people got to Milford before the tunnel was built it was impossible to see. Most things have been missed out. These were just highlights. Mustn't forget the visit to the underground power station on the way to Doubtful Sound. The bus drove 2km underground to let the passengers stare at 7 turbines that generate electricity. At that time 631.6 megawatts were generated.