Dunedin

We drove from Invercargill to Dunedin via the Catlins (with a detour to Bluff on the way, which was very cold and windy and the girls wouldn‘t get out the car so we didn‘t hang around). Our hotel in Te Anau said it was worth the trip instead of staying on the highway. And it was!!
We stopped at Slope Point which is the southern most point of the south Island. It was incredibly windy and we had to walk through a field of sheep but we can say we have been from North to South of both Islands now. We then tried to get to see the fossil forest at Curio Bay but it was so windy and cold and We were all tired so we carried on to find a Motel. We stayed in Owaka for the night. Our Hotelier told us we should go to Nugget point to see the Yellow headed Penguins. So of we trotted to try and get a sighting…. Unfortunately after freezing our bottoms of in the draughty little hide for and hour we didn’t see any so we left. We chatted to an older couple who had been there a couple of hours and had seen 2 Penguins waddle up the beach a good 45 mins before we got there. They showed us their pic’s which were quite cool. We headed to Dunedin first thing next morning.
Dunedin is the first city we have been to that actually felt like a city. It is full of ‘old’ Cathedrals and churches, and quite a few old Victorian houses. We found a great Hotel after quite a bit of hunting. We unpacked and went to the museum to see the butterflies. They are in a new exhibition, which is basically an indoor rainforest; they have a big pool and waterfall with fish and frogs and turtles, and hundreds of butterflies. It’s very cool and worth a visit, it was also nice to be warm as it was 30 degrees in there. The butterflies kept landing on Aisha as they liked her jumper which she thought was great, and Ellie went round and tried to rescue all the injured and dying butterflies. They also have a great hands on area where you could play air hockey, and various other interesting things.
We had Cambodian for tea, an attempt to get the girls taste buds ready for the real thing in a few months….. Surprisingly they enjoyed it…
We spent most of the next day watching DVD’s as Ellie had Aisha’s tummy Bug, and I had been up all night with one or the other of them. When we did finally surface we went to Baldwin St, Which claims to be the world’s steepest Street…. If it’s not I would hate to know what is….. We climbed to the top and then went and got a certificate from the tourist shop to say we had….. Sad I know but sometimes it has to be done….. As we left we bumped into the couple we had met at Nugget point the night before who said they had seen another yellow headed penguin about 20 minuets after we had left…. Sods law eh….
Ellie was still feeling abit rough so we took a slow dive to the Otago Peninsular to see if we could spot any Albatross, The road there is amazing, it winds it’s was round the bays and up to the peninsular. I think I saw an Albatross as we arrived (what ever it was it was BIG!!!), but not sure and defiantly didn’t see any more. But we did see a few Spotted Shags (ooo-er), and lots of Gulls….. I thought we would try going back to the Motel a different was as they way we had come had been a bit windy for Ellie and her tummy…. OOPPS… Ended up driving back over the top of the Peninsular with big drops and very narrow lanes (I’m getting good at doing that), Russ was not to happy, but the views were pretty spectacular…
We went back to the Motel and watched an Arnie movie which was surprisingly good, and listened to the Saturday night revelry going on in the city centre down the rd…. I am sooo looking forward to going out when we get to OZ!!!!!!!
Oh yeah and I have also attacked Russ with the paroxide….. It was meant to go blonde….. I think it’s karma after all those years of taking the p*** of ginga’s!!!!! I think I may look for some blue dye…… hmmmmm!!!!

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