Blogs from Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 9

Left Mt Cook and stopped off in a few places en route to Dunedin (the so-called Edinburgh of the south): Twisel,Elephant Rocks,(Hampden - just for the toilet and the name),Moeraki Boulders. Weather still excellent. The stop at the Elephant Rocks was a deviation from the planned route: it sounded interesting and was! They are large weathered limestone rocks shaped like........you've guessed it,elephants (if you use a little bit of imagination). Then on to the Moeraki Boulders. One of Rae's friends,Leigh,had told us about these: very strange looking rocks formed by "septarian concretion" - thought that you'd want to know that! Comes about from erosion! We had lunch on the beach while studying them! And on down to Dunedin with Scottish Shop,Robert Burns Bar - we even walked down Princes St. Off on a wildlife drive/cruise round ... read more

07.12.2011 Wir fuhren nach Dunedin mit einem Zwischenstopp in Oamaru. Außerdem besichtigten wir Steine (Boulders), bei denen wir auch Pelzrobben sahen. 08.12.2011 Die ersten paar Tage haben wir Dunedin und die Umgebung angeschaut. Die Halbinsel bei Dunedin war abartig. Dort haben wir auch etliche Möven, und zu späterer Stunde Zwergpinguine gesehen.... read more

Moving directly on from my last post - I had just set off with Austin and Anahita, two Americans, down to Fox Glacier. These guys were really nice (well of course I knew that given they were giving me a ride to Fox!) and Austin especially was extremely well-travelled so we spent some time talking about different places we'd been. He wanted to go to India so i told him a little about that, and he and Anahita told me about their experiences in South East Asia. The high point of the trip was the excitement expressed by Anahita at the New Zealand livestock. And I'm not talking the deer farms or the wildlife. Oh no. What enthralled these guys were the SHEEP! They raved for a good 10 minutes about the sheep (Anahita particularly likes ... read more

I was rudely cut off by the computer. Anyways while we were on the Otago checking things out we first went to see a special albatross center. It is theonly area in the world where you can see albatross on the main land and they were pretty amazing. We stood outside the fortified nesting area (I'm not kidding. They had electric fences specifically placed to zap humans or anything else that got funny ideas. We also didn't want to pay $50 dollars to bypass this small problem) and got lucky and had them fly over our heads. They were pretty spectacular. Then we drove over to the Lanarch Castle. A very wealthy gentleman built himself a rediculous house in the early 1900s. The house was beautiful (he brought in specialists and supplies from all over the ... read more

Up early to catch the Naked Bus (don't worry - it's just a name) to Dunedin. It was about a 6 hour trip, including a 30 min break in Oamaru. Time enough to grab a quick lunch, but sadly not enough time to return to the Whitestone Cheese Factory. We found our way to our hostel, Central Backpackers. The location was great, right near The Octagon, so lots of good cafes and restaurants. Dunedin is the Gaelic word for Edinburgh, and Dunedin was supposed to be a replica of that city. It sounds like there are at least some similarities, but Dunedin is MUCH more hilly! In the evening, we wandered over to the Speight's Brewery for a tour. This is an excellent brewery tour! You learn about the history of beer and brewing from "day ... read more