Day 47

We got up early that day and drove to Dunedin city centre. Stopping by Countdown to have breakfast, we walked to the toilets and I-site. Our new big map showed us lots of walks on the both peninsulas and we went to tunnel beach before driving to Otago peninsula. Following the coastal road around Otago Harbour all the way to Pilots Beach at Taiaroa, where the Royal Albatross colony resided. These birds were amazing to see – or would have been if the tours weren’t expensive! Down at the beach were some resting sea lions and lots of people who couldn’t read the “keep your distance” sign. Nesting seagulls had also sufficiently covered the viewing platform in shit and regurgitated fish. We went back to Portobello to escape from all the noisy seagulls and had lunch there. At Victoria beach/ Okia reserve, we saw the pyramids and Jack saw a rocky cave. It was pretty warm and Esther had a nap while Jack and I went back to the car to get the torches. The inland road in the Otago peninsula wasn’t too easy, very narrow and fast. I was driving, a little worry even if the landscape was amazing. The bay lighten by the sun was very colourful and peaceful.

It was almost 5pm when we arrived to Larnoch Castle. The entrance was way too expensive so we chose only to see the garden. It was nice and pretty and we took lots of pictures (even if Jack was rushing through). We decided to do a last walk before heading back in town and went to Sandfly Bay. Nice surprise, we actually got to see our 1st yellow eyed penguin after running down a very big sandy hill! Many people scared him off but we were patient and waited far away until he would get out of the water again. Surely he saw us not really hidden in the grass but he made his way to the top of the sand dune. Going back up, a massive sea lion scared us as we all walked past him before without noticing the giant shadow. Back in Mosgiel, we couldn’t resist to get some chips with a burger. Esther stayed a bit to get the wifi while we went to the library for a bit. We tried to go to another campsite but it was closed since few minutes. We then went back to our last campsite and Esther joined us later in the night.

Entree Written By Marianne