Blogs from Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 7

Saw my first wild penguins today! They are a very endangered species called yellow-eyed. Only 700 occupy an area of about 700km along the southern coast of the South Island with another 2000 on two other small, uninhabited islands. The preserve here on Otago Peninsula is trying to conserve while still maintaining limited viewing. Anyway, they were still sitting on eggs which should start hatching in a few weeks. So not a lot of activity except for one juvenile who had just come back from his first season of winter feeding and was standing around waiting to moult his first set of seawater feathers and trying to score some territory for future mating. If no one chases him away - it's his. Both towns are very influenced by their Scots first settlers. Dunedin (pronounced dun eden) ... read more

Saturday, 6th April - Day Three: Dunedin and a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory (yummy), a visit to Larnach Castle (fascinating) with lunch in the great ballroom (delicious), and bus tour of the city. As you might guess from all the names, much of it was settled by the Scots and the mountainous scenery and water all around is as impressive as much of Scotland. Dunedin is situated at the base of Otago Harbour and near the South Pacific Ocean. It’s one of the largest cities with an amazing variety of attractions including wonderful examples of Victorian and Edwardian architecture, beautiful gardens and beaches, theatres and “home to a colony of one of the world’s rarest penguins”, the unique yellow-eyed species. Our tour guide at the Cadbury Factory was a young girl finishing a course ... read more

Hi everyone We have settled into the cruising life and now we are hooked. Cheryl and Paul told us it wouldn’t take long and you were spot on guys. The first day I was a little dubious but after I got used to the boat movement I’ve been fine. I am now sitting on our balcony with my feet up writing this blog. It’s a bit cold so I am wearing the fluffy bathrobe from the cabin. The balcony looks a bit like a Chinese laundry with wet clothes hanging everywhere. I’m too scungy to pay for the clothes to be laundered so I have rediscovered the joys of hand washing. The sea is a bit choppy (3 metre swells) but not enough to be problematic. It’s really nice hearing the waves crashing against the side ... read more

Hello everybody, We are pretty far south in the Southern Hemisphere . The daylight lasts till 10:30 pm. Dunedin was settled by the Scottish settlers and has many buildingsthat are reminiscent of the UK. The one thing I did not expect is how hilly and winding it would be. The traffic is not to bad as Wellington. The whole population of NZ is 4 million. 3 million are on the north island even though it Is somewhat smaller. Our time here is getting shorter. We will be leaving from Christchurch in about 2weeks. Hope to see some rare yellow eyed penguins before we leave. A few images from the Dunedin Botanical garden. It is rated as a Garden of International Significance. As always Lowell Ps. If you look closely at the picture of the Rav4, you ... read more

After breakfast we drove in to Dunedin city centre and shopped for a while the place was alive with graduation ceremonies and students and their parents. There were bagpipes and a procession in the town and it really felt like Scotland and it was so odd that people were talking with a New Zealand accent we were expecting Scottish. I had my nails done as a treat and that was lovely. Steve looked at the Anglican Cathedral where a concert was taking place then joined me and we both had a massage in the massage chairs in the nail salon. Back for lunch then we went to the botanic Gardens which are beautiful and contain gardens from South Africa, Australia, UK, rock gardens and rose gardens. There was also an aviary which I would have emptied ... read more