Yesterday we were wandering around the Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin yesterday and in the section dedicated to the early immigrants from England and Scotland I came across this quote attributed to a passenger on one of the early voyages, Andrew Sprott aboard the "Wave Queen", 1863; "We are beginning to tire of the voyage, of the provisions and last tho' not least, of each other." and wondered if, in another few days, we won't truly begin to take this quote to heart - I think I'm over half way there.
We keep eating picnic lunches and inexpensive dinners and dinners in the room for expediency's sake; but expedient is beginning to get a bit tedious.
Trying to pack seeing all of NZ into just over 3 weeks means we are having a lot of early starts, which is beginning to make me tire of the voyage. There is very little down-time, trying to see as much as possible everywhere we go is beginning to take it's toll on us all. Don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic country and it's a fantastic trip, but the pace is certainly not laid back - this is not your "sit on the beach and drink fruity beverages" kind of trip. It's more of a, see as much as possible and make notes of where you'd like to come back to kind of trip. On with the voyage...
Two days ago (which would make it, um, Saturday) we travelled from ChCh to Dunedin through rainstorms and flooding (at one point there were cops and maintenance workers on a bridge, examining the debris and the water levels determining wether or not to close the road). For a fleeting moment I worried that we wouldn't make it to Dunedin. We had to negotiate some places on the highway where the water had flooded over top the road, but we managed to make it to our lunch stop in Oamaru without any problems.
We tromped around Oamaru in the rain looking at historic buildings and putting in time before heading down to Moeraki to see the Boulders.
The Moeraki Boulders are famous for their spherical shape, and they litter the beach like an abandoned game of snooker. They are best viewed at low tide (since they are on the beach), which is why we spent so much time wandering in the rain in Oamaru. Braving the strong wind and horizontal rain we ventured down to the beach and out to the rocks. It was fascinating to see how almost perfectly spherical they are. Drenched and rather cold but satisfied, we returned to the car for the hour-or-so drive on to Dunedin. Still wet, we arrived at the hotel.
Yesterday dawned almost as wet and woolly as Saturday, not boding well for the wildlife nature hike we had planned for the afternoon/evening. The morning was spent sploshing around Dunedin, we resisted the urge to tour the Cadbury's Chocolate factory, instead opting for the Settlers Museum. It had a really interesting section on the Maori including their recent history involving the giving back (ceremonial and otherwise) of the land to the Maori.
The dry warmth of the museum was replaced by more sploshing about as we snapped a few pictures around down town before heading back to the Motel to get ready for our wildlife nature hike.
Elm Wildlife Tours picked us up from our Motel at 3:15PM and whisked us up the Otago Peninsula to see Albatross, Fur Seals, Sea Lions and Penguins. We spent about 45 minutes at the Albatross Centre watching them sail in on the air currents, catching updrafts and circling back all set on the backdrop of high and craggy cliffs and a lone tower lighthouse. The rain had eased and the wind had picked up; just perfect for albatross and observers alike.
After the albatross, and a half hour minibus trip to another part of the Peninsula to a private field owned by a farmer, where we hiked down to a beach where we encountered a sleeping sea lion and spotted our first Yellow Eyed Penguins. We snaked through the tall grass above the beach and made our way quietly to a blind that we could safely watch the penguins from, without risking scaring them off. They were just coming home from a long day out at sea, they'd coast up onto the beach and then waddle their way up the sand, stopping to dry off and preen themselves before hiking up the hill to their nests.
We stood in the blind and watched them for about a half an hour or more before heading up to a second blind, further up the hillside to watch the penguins coming home to meet their young. There we were able to glimpse the Little Blue Penguin, a pair of which were nesting in a nesting box in the hillside above the blind.
Reluctantly we left the penguins and headed back along the beach and back up towards the minibus before heading though a sheep field and down another hill to another beach and set of blinds so that we could watch the New Zealand Fur Seal. There were many pups hauled out on the rocks and playing in tide pools swimming, fighting and playing tug-of-war with kelp.
The weather had let up, windy still, but the rain had ceased so it turned out to be a wonderful evening.
Today we headed out early on the road again to travel South to Te Anau, our staging point for the Milford Sound hike and cruise we have planned for tomorrow. Arriving in Te Anau at lunch time, we lucked out by being able to get into our spacious 2 bedroom, self contained, cabin and have our picnic lunch with warm tea.
This afternoon we went for a 2 hour hike along the lake shore (Lake Te Anau is the second largest lake in NZ) braving the intermittent showers, before heading out to dinner. The weather today was still rainy and a bit cold, hopefully tomorrow will be nicer - however, Milford Sound is supposedly one of the rainiest parts of NZ - sigh, we'll let's hope tomorrow is one of the dry days.
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