24/5/26 – Invercargill
While our morning started out pretty slowly the day began to increase in activity once Maree and Neville arrived in Invercargill! They rolled into the driveway with our car that we had last left in Arrowtown. The crazy logistical car transfer plan actually worked! It was great to see them again and it really cemented the end of our NZ leg of our cycling trip as we planned to pack up the bikes.
Oliver and Arthur accompanied Maree and Neville to the transport museum, enjoying seeing old cars and also seeing Burt Monroe’s world famous ‘fastest indian’ Motorcycle. Following this excursion they all met Raelene and Patrick down at queens park to check out the multitude of animals that they have there. Arthur particularly enjoyed seeing the peacocks, Alpacas, Ostrich, Pigs Chickens and a huge Avery full of birds. He also enjoyed patting the sheep that he thought felt a bit ‘sticky’….Finally they also saw Henry the 135 year old Tuatara! While this was going on, I was left at home to give the bikes a thorough clean. It was a pretty cold drizzly day so I made sure to put hot water in the bucket!
Once everyone was back home Neville gave me a hand to break up the bikes and begin to place them in their respective bags. We are fortunate that our flight to Sri Lanka has baggage limits of 30kg rather than the 20kg I have to work with when we fly out of Nhulunbuy. It made packing much easier and by the time Raelene had dinner sorted we were pretty much done!
25/4/26 – Invercargill to Dunedin
Alarms woke us all up and we quickly got dressed, poor Arthur took a while to wake up and was not keen to get dressed. Eventually we got everyone in the car and drove to the cenotaph for the ANZAC day dawn service. It is always a special day to take the time to remember those who were and still are affected by war.
After the service we had a quick cooked breakfast then packed then drove to Oreti Beach to see where Burt Munro tested his Indian Scout Motorbike, it was rather windy so we didn’t spend too much time there. Maree and Neville then decided to go to Bluff while we would continue along the coast for a trip down memory lane for me, first stop being Monkey Island. The drive was gorgeous, so many toi toi plants on the side of the road.
Our first stop was Monkey Island, I remember having a day here years ago Giles drove me there in his awesome 3wheel green car. It was great to return with Oliver, Arthur and Patrick. Arthur was lucky enough to find a very cool paua shell on the beach which he was extremely excited about. After a quick picnic lunch we continued onto gemstone beach which was just up the road. We could have spent all afternoon searching through the stones finding as many colours and patterns. The boys had great fun playing in the water washing the stones and chasing them down the fast flowing stream.
We then drove to Otautau and had a look at the primary school which I remember so well, it is amazing how much I remember of this area and truly loved visiting. We called into my primary school best friend’s parents house to say hello however unfortunately they were not home so we continued onto Dunedin.
During dinner the boys had great fun telling Ros and Paul all about our lives in Nhulunbuy with all the crocodiles and fishing. We have noticed Patrick recently has gained his confidence in story telling to people he has only just met. Only a few weeks ago Patrick would whisper his story to Rhys to myself asking us to tell the story however now he is brave enough to tell the story himself, it’s lovely.
26/4/26 – Dunedin
We could get used to these lazy mornings! With rain coming down regularly and pretty heavily, the kids had a great time watching a movie and Raelene and I tried to get a bit of the Blog done, we are falling quite far behind!
Although it was still raining we decided to head out to the Albatross colony out at Harrington point. Arthur has been dying to see Albatross for the whole South Island leg of our trip so we drove out, donned our wet weather gear and got out and about for a wander. Harrington point lighthouse is home to the only mainland Northern Royal Albatross breeding colony. These huge birds with wingspans of up to 3 meters use this site to lay and hatch their eggs before continuing their migrations as far as South America, racking up over 190,000km of flying annually! Luckily we were able to see 2 or three birds gliding over head, they were quite easy to spot due to the fact that they never really flap their wings, instead they use their huge wingspan to glide on the wind. Large seagulls on the other hand are always flapping! Makes them easy to spot.
We retreated back to Paul and Ros’ place with the kids enjoying another movie before the usual dinner, diary, books and bedtime routine!
27/4/26 Dunedin to Shag Point
After thanking Ros and Paul for their hospitality our first stop was Moana Pools, I remember the hydroslides being super fun here so I was keen to see if they were still there. Rhys was happy to drop us off and go to the shops to get supplies for the next few days. It is safe to say the hydroslides are still as awesome as I remember, we had a GREAT time going down the fast slide over and over again. I laughed so much watching the boys slide all over the place down the slide then get shot out the bottom, it is crazy how fast the slides went, definitely some of the fastest we have been on. Needing a rest from running up the ramp to the slides we went to the kids area which had a great floating river area which was heated and better still I was able to go to the adult only hot spa which overlooked the kids area. Energy restored we hit the slides again until Rhys arrived which indicated it was time to leave.
Baldwin Street was our next stop, I always forget just how steep the street is. Oliver and I powered on up the steepest residential street in the world as Patrick bought up the rear. It was great fun seeing the boys make their way to the top, they all were quite impressed with how steep it was. Watching them run down made me nervous as I could just imagine them picking up too much speed and falling flat on their face, thankfully they didn’t.
Dunedin bucket lists complete we continued North to Shag Point. The crib (batch/shack) is a very cute little house, Lynn and Simon met us and showed us around their gorgeous place. We then explored the rock pools which had amazing rock formations and a few seals camouflaged on the rocks. We returned to the crib, said bye to Lynn and Simon then began to make ourselves at home. Before the sunset we went back to the rocks to explore some more, as we walked down the path to the rocks we saw the resident seal swim in the rock pools, it was quite cute to watch as he played around before swimming further out. We decided to walk along the coast to try and find another path which lead us back up to the houses. Unfortunately we were starting to loose light and after failing to find the other path we had to turn around and walk back, it was very dark by this point and none of us had a phone or torch, luckily the moon was full and gave off a bit of light. We carefully made our way back to the path we knew and safely made it back to the crib. The boys were very brave walking the rocks in the dark as we saw a few seals still on the rocks, the water was coming in, the rocks were slippery and they all found it a bit scary.
Once safely back in the crib, Oliver and Patrick enjoyed putting wood on the fire in between games of bear with Arthur and I while Rhys did his usual thing of cooking a delicious dinner. After the kids were all settled into bed Rhys and I had a great evening playing a bit of scrabble and enjoying the relaxing atmosphere of the crib. We feel extremely grateful with house generous Lynn and Simon have been to open their special place up to us.
28/4/26 – Shag Point
We woke to an absolutely stunning day which made us all excited to head out and explore. First stop after breakfast was to walk up to the end of the road and check out the seal colony. The smell of fishy ammonia quickly confirmed that we had reached the colony, fur seals stink! It was funny to see them all the way up on the grassy banks, meaning they had somehow managed to scale the relatively considerable cliffs that skirted the ocean below. Although it was high tide there were still a fair number of seals lazing about on the rocks, they are pretty cute animals even though they are on the nose!
We headed back to the house and enjoyed some time by the fire, reading and playing card games with a bit of coaxing the kids headed up to he bush behind the house and began to build a little shelter out of the sticks and trees that had found up there. It was quite cute. Oliver wanted help from dad however Arthur was very adamant that they could do it themselves. Raelene and I ended up getting them started and then they carried on by themselves. they came to get us and took us up to show us the finished product, it was pretty awesome!
We finished the day with a walk back down on the rocks, exploring the nooks and crannies for treasures and dodging seals! There was a funny bit where raelene was trying to cross a section between a seal and the water, the seal got up and gave Raelene a start! The boys were on the shore giving her encouragement to get moving!!! All in all another wonderful day at the beautiful shag point.
29/4/26 – Shag Point to Christchurch
We woke up to another stunning day but also regretful as had to leave Shag Point. To delay our departure as long as possible we did an early mission to Moeraki boulders. The boys loved running up to beach to find the mysteriously spherical stones scattered across a beach. According to scientists the boulders are calcite concretions formed about 65 million years ago. According to Maori legend, the boulders are gourds washed ashore from the great voyaging canoe Araiteuru when it was wrecked upon landfall in New Zealand hundreds of years ago. We were fortunate enough to have the beach to ourselves, we had timed it well because as we left a bus load of tourists arrived. Back at Shag Point the boys ran up to their cubby house to check on is, apparently something had slept in it overnight. Eventually we were ready to depart and make our way to Christchurch.
We had a lovely evening with Rosie and Giles. Giles surprised the boys with giving them 2 toy cars each, the cars were his from when he was a boy. The boys were so excited and grateful which was lovely. To impress them more Giles got out the rest of his collection and the idea of getting the boys to bed went out the window as they were wide eyed playing with all the awesome cars. Arthur had his eye on a tractor, and he kept dropping hints that maybe he wanted to keep it by saying “I really like this one” and “you have 3 of them” it was quite funny. The boys went to bed a little later than usual around 10pm but happy fell into bed when encouraged to do so, the adults then pushed on till nearly midnight chatting.
30/4/26 – Christchurch to Picton
It was lovely to wake up at Rosie and Giles’ place. The boys were straight into the old model cars that Giles had pulled out the night before and spent the next little while building cardboard garages for each of their vehicles. Raelene headed off for a morning run up the hill and came back with a couple of scratches due to the narrow nature of the path that ran up the hill behind the house.
We all headed into the city for the kids to check out what turned out to be, one of the most incredible play parks! Oliver really enjoyed the water play area where you needed to pump and dam water via various means, Arthur and Patrick enjoyed the big climbing area and huge slide! Raelene and I were able to scoot to a book shop and plug the travel guide for Sri Lanka! Probably should start planning our next trip! Finally we joined Rosie and Giles at a cafe for lunch before saying a final thank you and goodbye before heading north towards Picton.
The drive was pretty uneventful however the scenery through Kaikoura is always beautiful and we enjoyed retracing steps we had taken a month prior. We finally reached Picton quite late by thankfully not late enough for the takeaway shop which was still open. Dinner sorted we checked into our hostel in which we stayed on our first night on the South Island. Staying here again for our last night certainly feels as if we had closed the loop in our South Island adventure. And what a time it has been…
