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HEADING towards Te Anau, I travelled around part of the southern coast of the South Island, looking out over the pristine Southern Ocean.
The mild conditions couldn't hide the windswept trees bent over almost horizontal from the normally severe conditions along this most desolate of coastlines. The late afternoon sun was streaming over the jagged mountains of the remote Fiordland where I was heading for the next week.
From here the coast swept south eastward over Gemstone Beach, named for the garnets, jasper, quartz and nephrite left behind as the soft cliffs gradually crumble away into the turquoise sea. Beyond the rounded headlands exposed to the elements stood the rugged hills of Stewart Island, blue against the subantarctic horizon.
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