Dunedin and Oamaru

We had a chilly and wet stay in Dunedin which made us feel like we were back home! The town was founded by the cousin of Robert Burn, so much of the architecture felt familiar. It also is home to a Victorian station, churches and the Caburys factory. We went to a farmers market on Saturday morning and had some excellent fish and chips to boot.

We headed to one of New Zealand’s largest beer brand’s factory and tour: Speights. We learnt a little but Olly swept up when for the last half an hour of the tour we were allowed to help ourselves to the “open taps” of six different brews.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, Baldwin street is the steepest in the world. So steep, the pavements turn into steps! We walked up it, and flew down it. Done.

Dunedin’s main attraction is the peninsular which is home to royal albatross, blue penguins and yellow-eyed penguins, the latter being extremely rare and shy. We were lucky enough to see all three species. To see the yellow-eyed, we had to sneek through tunnels and peak out to catch a glimpse. The little blue penguins (no more than 35cm tall), only come back to their burrows at dusk, and to see them bounce and hop up rocks from the beach was exciting and worth standing in the Antarctic breeze for. The albatross sighting was a lottery. We saw it 3 times from long distance only; lucky it had a 3.5m wing span to help us!

Leaving Dunedin we made our way north towards Mount Cook. We stopped at collection of strange perfectly spherical boulders which are on the beach at Moeraki. We also spent time in the historical town of Oamaru. It is in a Victorian time-warp, with many of the buildings, transport and artifacts still in place.

Yellow-eyed penguins

Penguin spying

Monk fish and kumara chips

Olly ‘bartending’

It’s blooming steep!

A dam en route

Moeraki boulders

Old trains at Oamaru

Olly tries a penny farthing for size