The South of the South Island

We finally arrived in Dunedin on Feb 3rd. Dunedin is a mid-sized college town built on rolling hills overlooking a large inlet and rocky coastline. After a quick stop at Speight's Brewery to reserve a spot on the evening tour, we headed for St. Clair Beach to check out the local surf spot. Only Dustin braved the long paddle to the break through endless lines of whitewash and strong currents. He was rewarded with a few very fast, head high waves along with plenty of breaking waves to the head.

After a few days of relaxing and exploring what has been our favorite city in New Zealand, we headed out to the peninsula to locate a remote surf break. This picturesque spot has been on our minds since the moment we first saw it on the cover of a "Surfers Journal" magazine....Although they didn't reveal the location, after lots of research and a few wrong turns we finally found it. There was no surf when we arrived (continuing our luck with the surf), but the spot was so beautiful we decided to spend a day there to relax. We left the next day but vowed to return when there is a nice northeast swell pealing into the bay.
From Dunedin, we headed southwest to Gore, the "Brown Trout Capital of the World". All it took was a little local knowledge and we were finally catching fish. In two days we caught over 30 fish, most in the 18-22" range. We even kept a few for a great trout dinner.

After catching enough fish to make our arms sore, we drove to Te Anau - gateway to Milford Sound and Fjordland National Park. Yesterday we hiked a small length of the Kepler Trek, one of New Zealand's "Great Walks", through lush forest along Lake Te Anau. It was a beautiful hike and got us excited for our upcoming tramp.
After a homemade dinner of NZ green mussels and steak last night to celebrate one month of traveling (Has it been that long already?), we headed to Milford Sound this morning. The rain, which is becoming the theme of our trip so far, started up again. This time it was actually welcomed as it had the waterfalls flowing in full force. The rain and fog created a mystical atmosphere and also made for some slippery tramping in the sound.
From here we're headed to Queenstown for the three-day Routeburn tramp, another of the "Great Walks", which we'll start on the 13th. We may even go for a bungy jump while in Queenstown if Rachel can summon the courage (Feel free to send encouragements, no warnings please).