Dunedin

Sandfly Beach on the Otago Peninsula
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We almost skipped Dunedin in our itinerary as most reviews/books said it wasn’t worth the stop. We would disagree. Although one night was sufficient and it certainly was a good stopover point from Te Anau on our way to Christchurch, we also thought it offered much in the way of the Otago Peninsula.

You have the opportunity on the peninsula (just one hour’s drive out of town) to see the only mainland Albatross colony and also a colony of yellow eyed and blue penguins. There are various tours involved in seeing each of these which we were not really up for, but we had read that you have the chance to see the penguins at Sandfly beach on the south side of the peninsula so we thought we’d give it a whirl. The beach was stunning and the winds were so strong. We walked through huge sand dunes getting a good dose of sand “exfoliation” along the way. We made our way to the far end of the beach past many huge sea lions to the area where you can hide and try to see the penguins as they make their way on shore late in the day. We literally almost walked into some huge Hooker’s or New Zealand sea lions as they had burrowed a little under the sand – that would not have been pretty. Unfortunately, we were too early so no penguin sightings for us, but the views were worth it anyway.

Is that sand in your pocket or are you just happy to see me??

It's a workout climbing up thru sand!
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The coast off of peninsula definitely reminded us of the coast of Oregon and the coast of Scotland -- no surprise that many of the Scots settled here.

The town area itself is filled with the buzz that seems standard in college towns and finally we found a motel with free wifi – woo hoo.

Next, we are on to Christchurch.

Tidbit of the day:

Careful where you step!
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Yellow eyed penguins (of which we didn’t get to see) are one of the rarest penguins on earth – numbering only around 3000. The Hooker’s sea lions are also one of the rarest sea lions in the world.