Woke up nice and early at 7 am, which would be our 5am so I was definitely feeling it. Waking up to the gorgeous view sweetened it a little though. We wanted to catch a full day of Dunedin and had to make our way up north by the end of the night.
Firstly, we headed straight for Otago Peninsula – Dunedin’s natural backyard. The morning sun and the noon sun certainly makes a huge difference in how views are played out in our eyes. Our drive back to Dunedin was very different to our way there, both beautiful (though I’m definitely a morning sun person).
Here’s my children all complaining about the mud and not wanting to get out.
We drove right up to the top of the peninsula where I was met with snapshots of the cerulean sea. The roads were pretty quiet so I stopped a few times to catch moments like these.
At the top of the peninsula was the Royal Albatross Centre. We were way too early for them to be open but crowds of seagulls yodeled their greetings at us.
The very edge of the peninsula
On our way back, we headed to Lanarch Castle – New Zealand’s only castle. It definitely doesn’t compare to the likes of European ones but I still enjoyed the gardens, interior and architecture.
I LOVE SUCCULENTS. I just don’t know how to keep them alive. They just keep growing mould and then there’s no turning back. I still have wilted succulents that have dried and died in my room as I’m in denial about doing a terrible job in keeping them alive. Anyway, I digress… I was just ecstatic when I saw a bed of these hugging the trunk of that dinosaur-skinned tree.
You’re going to notice that I have an obsession with chairs soon. Actually, each day of my trip seems to have a subject focus, you’ll see! Enjoy my seat exhibition…
We then headed into Dunedin city to absorb the sights, have lunch and do a bit of shopping. I didn’t have a scarf so I invested in a merino possum scarf. I am obsessed with it – it is just so warm and soft and warm and soft and warm and soft.
We waited forever for 2 big buses to move out of the way.. we finally settled with that little orange one being stubborn. Then we made our way up north to Moeraki Boulders.
Little crab family… it looked so cute but it’s actually not hey? Someone had arranged the dead bodies of them and I don’t even know where all their limbs went. Okay, now it really isn’t that cute.
Moeraki Boulders! I wonder if they’re actually natural – they’re only in one little area of the beach. They definitely don’t look recently rounded but maybe they were done by tribes a long time ago? I don’t know. Okay, just did a quick Google – apparently natural. Strange that it doesn’t occur along anywhere else along that stretch of beach.
We then continued along our way to Oamaru with a never ending sea of sheep dotting the green hills.
Oamaru is known for its Victorian architecture at the beginning of Thames St and for their penguins. We caught the last of the daylight to enjoy the streets.
Then we clocked into the Blue Penguin Colony Conservation to welcome the penguins back home. I wasn’t allowed to take photos but they were ADORABLE. I also got to see a few New Zealand fur seals, two baby ones and then I realised last minute that there was a MASSIVE one literally staring at me for ages with its cute doe-eyed face at less than 3 metres away from me.
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