Dunedin

After Wanaka we traveled a few hours from the central area of the southern island to the south east corner of the southern island. After many winding roads through sheep pastures and steep mountains, we crested a final hill which brought us down into the ocean side town of Dunedin. All of the buildings seem to be no taller than 3 or 4 stories... with a slightly Spanish feel.

Once we got oriented with the map and where we were (a task that takes us about 15 minutes when we come to every new town) we found our hostel. On the top of, maybe the steepest street I've ever been on. On a related note, the steepest street in the world (according to the Guiness Book) is in Dunedin. It's a big tourist attraction, but we seemed to not make it during our 2 night stay there. Our hostel was a culmination of 3 little houses all within the confines of a big fence. There was a hot-tub and a sauna. Both big draws. We settled in that day and then decided to walk around the town a bit.

The center of town is called "The Octagon." There is one main street that goes through the octagon, and the outside goes around this street in the shape of... yes, you guessed it: an octagon. There are loads of shops, malls, and restaurants around here... so we had a nice afternoon poking around in them. The other big draw in the center of town is the university in Dunedin. I forget the name, but Dunedin is a college town... and that uni brings in a lot of the population for the 2nd biggest city in the southern island.

The next day we decided to do all of the "sight-seey," tourist things. We got in Ellen and drove to the end of the Otago Peninsula. This road was another VERY windy road which on one side, had cliffs which were RIGHT against the road, and on the other... an eight foot DROP into the ocean. It was fine until a giant Toyota Camry decided it wanted to come around one corner half in my lane. For that split second I was very relieved to have the full insurance on our car. Thankfully, we didn't need it. I recovered and I think the other 4 bodies in the car may have thrown up their middle fingers at the other driver. At the end of the peninsula is the home of the Albatross (I forget which type) mating grounds. From what we found out, the Albatross' only land mating areas are in NZ... while they're not mating they fly all around the world from continent to continent. Their wingspan can get to be over a yard wide and they can fly at speeds over 60mph. Unfortunately, the albatross had left about a month before we were there. I read in Whitney Taylor's blog that she has been studying/marking albatross on Tern Island off of Hawaii. They very well could be the same birds... but she would know more about whether or not they are.

There is an Albatross information center, obviously complete with a gift shop, at the end of the peninsula where we learned some of this information. After we looked around a bit, we walked down the steep trail to she shore where we were told we might see some seals. We were not disappointed. Right there, in the ocean, not in a pool at the zoo, were about 15 seals swimming around and basking on the rocks. It was my first experience, in nature, with an animal I usually see in the zoo... and it was so amazing!

After we took numerous photos of the seals we took the only other road back towards Dunedin... the road on TOP of those cliffs I mentioned before. So the same windy roads, but with a 400ft drop this time. The views, however, made up for this death defying drive. The mountains all run straight down into these beautiful blue/teal/aquamarine waters. We were told at the albatross building that we might have a chance to see a penguin if we went to a certain beach half way towards town. So we traveled to the parking area, and started the hike down the sand dunes towards the beach. It was a steep hike on the way back, but very fun to run down barefoot. Once we were on the beach, we were happily surprised to see about 10 Sealions laying on the sand together. They were spread out in groups of 2 or 3 throughout the beach. At the end of the beach, near some cliffs with rocks at the bottom, there was a trail that lead up to the top of a bluff where some hiding places were stationed. These were basically wooden sheds with little windows to watch the penguin habitat from. The purpose for these is to keep the penguins from seeing humans, so they don't get scared, and leave the habitat. We sat in the "blind" for almost 30 minutes with no sign of a penguin... until we realized that what we thought was a rock, was actually a penguin sitting on the side of the hill. Perhaps sitting on an egg or nest or something. But without a pair of binoculars, there was no way of knowing. After we had taken enough photos on full zoom, that still didn't show much of a penguin, we walked back up the beach towards the car. A few of the Sealions had started to spar with each other. It was rather cool, but I was slightly afraid because I didn't know how close we should get, and blah blah blah. But we made it by safely, got to the car, and went back to the hostel.

That night we took a tour of the Speight's Brewery. Which is right down the street from our hostel. The tour guide was extremely knowledgeable, and very funny. The brewery gets all of their water for the beer from a spring that is directly below their brewery. They have been brewing, and using this spring water for over 100 years. They also use a special type of gravity fed brewing that I think is only used by a few breweries in the world. Most of the copper brewing equipment is around 60-80 years old, and it was very historical. It turns out that Speight's is the Pride of the South for over 100 years (their motto.) At the end of the tour we were able to go to one of the 7 bars in the brewery (there's one on every floor for the employees.) At the bar we were able to pour our own beer, and sample all of their 6 flavors. There was also no limit, and it seemed that throwing a beer down the sink wasn't a waste at all.

Rain came hard that night, so we stayed in the hostel and played some games. The next day we got in the car for a 4 hour drive to Te Anau.