Dunedin and Oamaru
Left Portobello at 10 AM and took the Highline road on top of the peninsula back to the main highway The day was sunny and the views spectacular. Got great pictures of Anderson Bay and stopped at Larnach Castle and at Cliftons, a small rural wool store, where all of their products are made from the wool of their own sheep. They do not use any dyes. The colors are the color of the natural wool. Lunch in Dunedin and then off to Oamaru to see some Blue Penguins. The boulders at Moeraki took 4 million years to make and are very rare! They are made like a pearl but in a layer of sandstone and end up with a hard smooth cement like coating. They emerge from the sandstone as it weathers away.
Oamaru has a very active Yellow-eyed Penguin colony plus a Blue Penguin colony. The Yellow-eyed Penguins are accessible from a trail overlooking the beach and can be photographed since they are active before dark. The Blue Penguins are viewable only at dusk and cannot be photographed. We opted for the Yellow-eyes and one came within 5 feet of Kathy. It was much better evening for viewing the penguins since it was warmer than Nugget Point and had very little sea breeze. We had dinner with a Canadian couple that we had run into at four stops during the day. What are the odds of that!
PS In case any of you have begun to think we have a penguin fetish, this is probably our last day looking for them. There are no penguins that we know of North of Oamaru.
Thursday, March 23, 2006