The Travel Addicts: Welcome to the South Island

Saturday, April 8, 2000

Welcome to the South Island

04-Apr-2000 thru 08-Apr-2000

The South Island is what most people think of when they think of New Zealand - lots of sheep, high mountains, lots of sheep, fjords, and sheep.

Stock being driven down the roads is a common site on the South Island (The Travel Addicts, South Island, New Zealand)

Stock
Stock being driven down the roads is a common site on the South Island

This is actually on the North Island but got mixed in on this disc so it get's put here. There is Skiing on this Volcano - which erupted in the last 10 years. (The Travel Addicts, New Zealand, North Island)

Mt. Ruapehu
This is actually on the North Island but got mixed in on this disc so it get's put here. There is Skiing on this Volcano - which erupted in the last 10 years.

Strait Freight Tug UJ4409
These little thingies are used to load trailers on the ferry

(New Zealand, The Travel Addicts, South Island)

A rock seen in Cook Straight

Logging is till practiced in environmentally sensitive New Zealand (New Zealand, The Travel Addicts, South Island)

Logging barge
Logging is till practiced in environmentally sensitive New Zealand

The weku or Moari hen looks and acts like a cross between a duck and a chicken. They wander all over the place. (New Zealand, The Travel Addicts, South Island)

Weku
The weku or Moari hen looks and acts like a cross between a duck and a chicken. They wander all over the place.

(New Zealand, The Travel Addicts, South Island)

New Zealand Fur Seal pup

A sign here said:. Irimahuwero - "The Place of the Hanging Red Hair" well known to generations of Maori travelers, the name came from the crimson rata flowers which festoon the coastal bluffs at the height of summer. . Maori travelers used the beaches under Te Miko cliff and had to scale this rock face on flax and vine ladders to reach the food rich region of Punakaiki. in the mid 1840's, European explorers walked these coasts with Maori guides. The west coast gold rushes of the 1860's brought thousands of diggers to these parts. They made ascents and descents of Te Miko cliff on chain ladders with wooden rungs. The difficult coast was later avoided via an inland pack trail and then by a coastal track which was not developed into a highway for vehicles until 1920, and not sealed until as late as 1979. One of the early Europeans to scale this cliff by ropes - a Mr. Thomas Brunner put his dog (uniquely named "Rover") on a platform and used him as a counterbalance to raise his supplies - so the dog went up and down on his own private elevator! (The Travel Addicts, South Island, New Zealand)

Irimahuwero
A sign here said:
Irimahuwero - "The Place of the Hanging Red Hair" well known to generations of Maori travelers, the name came from the crimson rata flowers which festoon the coastal bluffs at the height of summer.
Maori travelers used the beaches under Te Miko cliff and had to scale this rock face on flax and vine ladders to reach the food rich region of Punakaiki. in the mid 1840's, European explorers walked these coasts with Maori guides. The west coast gold rushes of the 1860's brought thousands of diggers to these parts. They made ascents and descents of Te Miko cliff on chain ladders with wooden rungs. The difficult coast was later avoided via an inland pack trail and then by a coastal track which was not developed into a highway for vehicles until 1920, and not sealed until as late as 1979. One of the early Europeans to scale this cliff by ropes - a Mr. Thomas Brunner put his dog (uniquely named "Rover") on a platform and used him as a counterbalance to raise his supplies - so the dog went up and down on his own private elevator!

(The Travel Addicts, South Island, New Zealand)