After snapping the railway station at Dunedin we drove down to Nugget Point - lighthouse plus rocks in sea - almost lost my ring here but found it in bag - then waterfall and an old logging site in the Catlins.

To remember long are the minutes of enchanting fernbirds to appear at Tautuku Estuary. Thanks to my guide Wynston and his CD of bird songs I did eventually see the furtive striped brown avians. Perhaps not the most beautiful winged forms, but rarity and difficulty add glamour. Familiarity breeds contempt.

Curio Point - petrified forest and New Zealand sea lions - must not get between them and the sea. Hectors dolphins at Porpoise Bay. We rescued two French people on route. Flew - a little jerkily - from Invercargill which is Wynston's home town - to Stewart Island which is the most southerly I've been - and it is tipping it down here!