Matakana, Goat Island, Mangawhai Head

A relaxing day at Matakana...

Yumss Charlie Ice Cream, recommended by my best buddy, Jing a ling... Why why are you not in NZ when I am.. So close to your house.. LOL..

Goat Island

Picture perfect, good job GULLS!

Manghawai

We enjoyed ourselves watching strong surfers cutting the high waves, really, this is the biggest waves we saw in NZ so far! About 4-5metres... Really amazed by these surfers' strong muscles and determination!

While the surfers entertained us, this Gannet caught our attention! Finally, we get to see a Gannet, after we missed out the chance at Cape Kidnappers. As these birds can only be found in Muriwai, Cape Kidnappers and Farewell Spit.. When we reach Cape Kidnappers, there is a walk to see this bird colony and only during low tides that people are able to walk by the beach.. So our timing then was not right.. So we are so lucky to see this guy here =)

Parked our van at Uretiti DOC camp $22 for 2 person that night..

Colac Bay, Tuatapere & Te Anau

Colac Bay

Our apricot orchard friend, Kara, previously volunteered at the Riverton Environmental Center and from her we found out that the center sells free range eggs for only $4.50 (a dozen), and they also have organic veggies and fruits.. Sadly they were close on sunday (and maybe saturday). so we just drove pass Riverton and stop at Colac Bay****, a surfer's place!

Feels so nice, just 'surf watching' and this cute fella keep standing in front of us, holding a stick in its mouth, gesturing us to play with him. So Peter had good fun with the doggie. Nothing much in this small town but beautiful surf waves.

So we went on to see this Monkey Island. a small little island which is accessible during low tide. It used to be the Maori's lookout point for whales.

Tuatapere, sausage capital of the world. We just thought that slogan was quite exaggerated. There is only one small butcher shop and they were no longer selling their famous paua (abalone) sausage because the paua are too deary, and all NZ's paua are being exported to China! Gosh... So we bought their pork and jalapeno sausage instead. They also sell their products in Queenstown's Fresh Choice supermarket and Stewart Island. So if they were that good, we can still buy them in Queenstown!

Te anau

We reached Te Anau, the "Walking Capital of the World" under Fiordland National Park. For today we visited the DOC wildlife environmental center near town. It's an interesting center with many native animals to see, entry by donation.


Here's the endangered Takahe bird, a flightless bird that looks really similar to Pukeko. The main difference between them are: Takahe is bigger and fatter in size, flightless, and lays only two eggs.

Paradise shelduck

There are so many DOC campsites along the famous scenic Milford Road, so we had a shower at Te Anau's public toilet which cost $5 each! The cheapest holiday park for nonpower site in Te Anau is $38... To save some money we stayed at the Henry Creek campsite which is only 25km from Te Anau and using honesty system, it cost $6 pp for the night. Still cheaper than the holiday park. Even the public toilet cost $1 in Te Anau!