Dunedin

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After the Catlins we were on the way to Dunedin. On the first day, we wondered around town and had lunch but because it was raining we didn't spend too much time walking about. On the second day we went to the Yellow Eyed Penguin Conservation Reserve on the Otago Peninsula- these are the rarest breed of penguin in the world with their numbers only at 4,500. The reserve is spread accross a section of the coast where we could travel through tunnels and camouflaged huts to try and see then without them seeing us! They are a very shy bird and if they spot people or even another penguin near their nests, they abandon their sites (including their eggs) and move somewhere else, maybe that's why they're so rare!?

On our last day in Dunedin we finally went horse trekking which had been cancelled on two occasions before-hand. We were given all our equipment and James had a bit of a shock when he saw the size of his horse! Both the horses were ex race horses which accounted for their size, but luckily they were really well natured so it made it easy for us. We opted to do the 3-hour beach ride which was really beautiful. We actually drove to the beach with the horses in a horse box and began riding on the beach. We spent a couple of hours riding along white sand beached before stopping for a picnic and then heading back.

After our trek we drove back to the centre of Dunedin and got some pictures of some of the architecture it's famous for and then drove onto Oamaru where we stayed the night, with a quick stop at the Moeraki Boulders (strange spheres of rock rolling out of the cliff face onto the beach).

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Comments

[nick]

Pengiun... that's it !!
Sleeping penguin under cover.... looks a lot more like 'Dadger', the part cow part badger and now part penguin ! xx