Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula 11-12 February 2014

 

A view of the Otago peninsula

After allowing Bill a few hours to work before leaving the Chillawhile, we began the incredibly winding and amazingly beautiful drive down the coast to Dunedin. We had been told that the country only gets more beautiful as you head south, and I daresay it's true. We grabbed a quick Vietnamese lunch in Dunedin, and found our way out to the peninsula and The Penguin Place Lodge, our accommodation for the night.

To say the road is winding doesn't really sufficiently describe its harrowing nature: completely blind S turn after S turn after S turn, back and forth over the same train tracks, within about two feet of an oftentimes very steep cliff down to the ocean -- and not a guard rail in sight! Seriously. The thing that makes it especially scary is that when you are unaccustomed to driving in the left lane with a right-side steering wheel, the tendency is to pull to the left. Too far left on this road and you're down a cliff or in the ocean or down a cliff and in the ocean. I suspect it is more "thrilling" for the passenger than the driver. Bill and I shared the adventure! I felt seriously nauseated by the time we arrived.

Brody and I went out while Bill attempted to get in a couple more hours of work. We toured through the Royal Albatross Centre (didn't see any), then walked down to the ocean where we met up with this character:

Seeing the blue penguins come ashore last night (sorry too dark for decent pics) followed by the sea lions today was pretty magical. Not that we've had any doubts about making this trek to NZ, but wildlife encounters were a big part of our rationale for coming and the last couple of days confirmed our choice!

The next morning we ventured down that windy road yet again to return to Dunedin. Dunedin is NZ's oldest city. It is a university city, and it is centred around an octagon at the heart of downtown. The hilly city is bustling with tourists and students, and is really quite a lovely mixture of Victorian and modern architecture.

Bill headed to the public library to work for a short time while the boys and I went for a tour of the Cadbury's factory. I suspect they were more impressed with the samples than the tour, but within a "chocolate mash" storage silo we did see a tonne of melted chocolate fall from above our heads down to a reservoir about 50 feet below. Pretty cool.

After our tour we met Bill for lunch at an excellent Mexican restaurant and then went to see the steepest street in the world -- Baldwin St., Dunedin. Regrettably, there is no way our photos can aptly capture the severity of the slope of this road. It is a 19 degree angle. Ridiculous!

After spending the farm on groceries, we set out for our next destination: The Catlins.

 

View from Baldwin St looking down.

View from bottom of Baldwin St.