After leaving Mount Cook we didn’t get far before we were stopping again for more scenic pictures! There was an absolutely stunning turquoise lake…. But after managing to get on the main road to Omaru, there were only a few stops along the way, one of them being a petrol stop, that we were lucky to make it to as we forgot to fill up after leaving Mount Cook…!
As soon as we got to Omaru we rushed to get our tent set up and got out to see the penguins that are here! Our first stop was to the yellow eyed ones, (very rare) we got to see 4 come ashore and 2 lots of 2 within the bushes! Very cool seeing as they say you can wait all night and not see one! After that we drove down to the blue penguin colony which we paid to get into, you normally get to see roughly 150 come in in one night and we weren’t disappointed! These penguins are the smallest ones in the world and they come in to shore in rafts (thats a group of 10 to 20 penguins at a time) it was amazing to watch and be so close as you see them getting smashed in to the rocks to lots of ooo’s and arr’s but they seemed completely fine as they all wobbled up the rocks cleaning then making a dash to their homes to their waiting partners and chicks. It was brilliant! on leaving we were told to check under our cars as they like to hide under them and they nest all around town, driving down the road past all the penguin crossing signs we saw quite a few penguins running around, very cute! We previously laughed at the penguin crossing signs when we first saw them it was hard to imagine them being true!!
The next day we headed in to the old town which sounded like a good picture opportunity, which it definitely was, but it also had some really decent tourist shops, our favourites being a pottery shop and a whisky shop that was in the most beautiful building – back in the day it was a wool and grain factory, it had kept the history parts but was now a great smelling whisky distillery, with amazing wooden floors and brick walls. We bought some whisky and then we left for the short drive to Dunedin.
There wasn’t much to see on the route down (specifically that is – it was still very scenic as always)… until we got Dunedin and remembered we missed a nice town along the way – doh!
We had a great rainy plan to do today in town – go to Cadbury World! As I haven’t ever been to the one in Birmingham (Mum + Dad your useless haha). Sadly it was a Sunday so could only do a short tour but it was good, got lots of chocolate and got to taste some hot fresh chocolate too. We then drove out to our camp site at the nearby Otago Peninsula. It started poring and galling which Clare couldn’t help finding absolutely hilarious as i was out in it putting up the tent, the worst thing was that it stopped shortly after i had finished grr! We had a nice dinner and booked up our Christmas accommodation then got a earlyish night.
Woke up as fresh as you can be in a tent and headed to the Albertross sanctuary – at the nearby beach we got to see sea lions, very big and smelly but have cute dog like faces! We got some great pictures as we could get as close as we dared! The last one we got close to (that was luckily behind a corned off part of the beach) really growled at us and looked like it would steam through the fence at us – that was too close then! We headed up the hill to watch for the albatross in the car park as couldn’t see the point paying to see a bird your bound to see fly over and we were right, we got to see two, they are huge! its funny really as they look similar to big seagulls but its not until you see them that you realise just how big they are! Satisfied we then drove to another part of the Peninsula to do a scenic walk, which I did on my own and Clare chilled out with her book overlooking an amazing bay. Both happy we then drove to Sandfly beach (known for its wind blowing sand rather than the annoying biting fly) it was really nice, more sea lions but far to windy to enjoy it for long. After a good tour we headed back to Dunedin so we could split up and buy each other something little for Christmas and some decorations before driving down to the Catlins District.
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