My driving the southern island begins! Picked up my car in Picton and headed for my first stop, Nelson. After a couple of nights in Nelson, onto Collingwood/Cape Farewell.

Just outside my window, sailing classes were in session -- including the lesson about how to right your boat from a knock down ...

Interesting port ... not quite the scale of Aucklands ... a bit more "tropical" feel to it ...

Roses in bloom in the Queen's (Botanical) Gardens

Nelson's Christ Church Cathedral, not to be confused with Christchurch's Cathedral ...

Getting my ducks in a row ...

Just struck me as odd these ducks so aligned and spaced along the pond's edge ...

Chaos that is teaching sailing ... I think they're supposed to be going in the same general direction ...

Ahhh, that's better ...

A couple of longer exposures to convey the winds and sea ...

Waves breaking over the entrance to the harbor and Johnathan was just having a blast "surfing" the wind gusts ...

During this "gale" ... I spotted this guy. He would fly across the harbor, crash, turn around, fly back, crash, and then repeat again and again ... Seemed to enjoy the speed, but couldn't seem to master the turn ...

The next night, the "big boats" headed out on the weekly Wednesday night race.

Well, I had to do it ... It is the CENTER OF NEW ZEALAND afterall!

I was hoping that tremendous powers would befall me standing under this ... but nope ... just thoughts of possible headline: "American tourist impaled at Centre of New Zealand ..."

Nelson, from the Centre of New Zealand

Maitai Valley looked so inviting ... the road just seems to beckon ...

Blue Heron

Salsbury Falls

On to Collingwood and the Farewell Spit area. Of course, the first thing I do is going looking for a waterfall. Was getting setup and starting to shoot these falls when both the rain AND sand flies decided to attack ... I led a hasty retreat.

Salsbury Falls

Salsbury Falls

The estuary near where I was staying frequently mirrored the sky ... if only I could have found a row boat for the foreground!

Another dramatic sky over the estuary

On the same evening as the previous clouds appeared to the west, this was forming in the east!

Quite the dramatic sunrise... looking east towards Abel Tasman

Your's truly at Cape Farewell at the start of the Cape Farewell Eco Tour (a guided tour of Farewell Spit, it's lighthouse and the animals that call the spit home...

Johnathan contemplating "unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull," and that his "whole body, from wingtip to wingtip is nothing more than" his "thought itself ..." Paraphrased from Richard Bach's "Johnathan Livingston Seagull"

NZ Oyster Catchers. Paired for life, they "own" about a kilometer of beach each pair and defend it pretty aggressively from other oyster catchers ...

Oyster catchers are forever walking up and down the beach in search of food in the surf. The maori name for the oyster cathcher is "torea," so if someone compares you to a torea, you're considered always busy ...

Oyster catcher out with a new hatchling in the ever present winds of Farewell Spit

Sea lions ...

Would love to know what the joke was ...

Sea lion

South Island pied oyster catchers ... occasionally they do hang out in groups ... usually after the breeding season ...

Our tour bus driver, evaluating the path through the deep, shifting sands into the Farewell Spit lighthouse (perhaps more for dramatic effect than anything else ;-) )

Farewell Spit Lighthouse with it's painted red "socks" -- in 1995 everyone in NZ was wearing red socks (including this lighthouse) in support of Peter Blake's challenge for the America's Cup...

Gannets

Farewell Spit has a gannet colony as well. While the colony was too far off to see, a lone gannet decided to grace us with his presence ...

Constantly shifting sands means Farewell Spit is always shifting about ...

Walking the roads around Collingwood. Don't know that I've mentioned it, but the roads in NZ are a bit winding/curvy ...

Out to Whararicki Beach and the Archway Islands

Archway Islands at Whararicki Beach

As I left Collingwood and the Farewell spit, stopped off at Wainui Falls -- it was a popular day to visit the falls ... I was going to try another visit the next morning, but the weather didn't cooperate ...

Wainui Falls -- this was supposed to just be a "placeholder" 'til I could come back and shoot it properly, but the weather and schedule didn't cooperate ;-)