Rick Stein meets David Attenburgh

We have moved on through the beautiful Catlins in the south of New Zealand to Christchurch. On the way, we passed through Dunedin and Moeraki. Valentine's Day will be with us tomorrow. We spotted this car in a supermarket car park. Lovely registration!

Another "est". This is the steepest street in the world. It is 1:2.8 at its steepest point. Before we drove up it, Alison said, "let me out, I don't want to go up there", but the good old van made it up and down OK.

Does this look familiar? It could be a street from an English mill town. It's in Dunedin.


This is a restaurant in Moeraki. It doesn't look much from the outside, just a tin hut, but wow! We were on our way north and had only been driving half an hour, when Alison said she was tired. So we pulled off the main road into the small village of Moeraki. How lucky were we! Fleur's Place, this restaurant, is absolutely amazing, so much so that Rick Stein has even been. He was allegedly asked to choose one restaurant anywhere in the world to go for lunch and this is the one he picked.
Not a good photo, but this is the lady herself - Fleur. Alison had blue nose (local fish) and Garry had flounder, washed down with some lovely local wine. A real gastronomic experience.

This is the harbour, right outside Fleur's restaurant. Note no leisure craft, only fishing boats. Fleur gets her fish every day, fresh off the boats.

Alison wants to tackle the next triathlon on this bike. This was in Oamaru, the only place where we have seen all the buildings made of stone.

A little story here. The day after our gastronomic experience at Fleur's, we went for a little walk. Above are the Moeraki Boulders, not man made or made by the sea, no-one really understands how they are formed.

Continuing the story, while we were out walking we came across this little fellow. It is a yellow eyed penguin, not many of these around as they are an endangered species. Obviously we didn't disturb him whilst he was sun bathing. A bit of a special sighting for us.

Still on the same walk, we spotted this fellow, a juvenile shag taking a rest.

This could be mum and dad.

And last but not least, this seal sun bathing on the rocks. So what a special place Moerake turned out to be, great restaurant, strange boulders and great wildlife. Also, coincidentally the best campsite we have stayed on.

We finally made it to Christchurch, despite the detours and met up with Val and Tony from Beverley. We think we may have bored them a bit with our stories, but it was fabulous to catch up with them, some familiar faces from back home.

If the video below works, you'll see that we are being bombarded with Johnny Cash enthusiasts. This is in Christchurch, but we posted a similar video from Thailand. It has got to be said, these guys were better performers.


Valentine's Day tomorrow, so we are going to the rugby. The first match of the season Christchurch Crusaders v The Chiefs.
Happy Valentines and bye for now