Heaven and Heritage

We drove into Dunedin (pronounced Dune-din not Dun-e-din like we thought) where Tiffany got to live out her dreams with a visit to Cadbury World (NZs Cadbury Factory). Mum and I have previously visited the Oz one in Tasmania so we gave it a miss while Dad and the other 3 headed in for the tour.

Mum and I wandered the town which is famous for its heritage buildings (we liked the train station) and went to an old fashioned fudge shop.

On leaving Dunedin we drove around to find Baldwin Street to take photos of it. Its famous because it is the steepest street in the world (for those of you interested in transport eng, you know who you are, it has a 38% gradient - http://www.ourshop.co.nz/baldwinstreet.htm).

We hit the coast and saw the Moeraki Boulders which can't really be described but I will try. They are massive spherical rocks which look like they have washed up on the shore but are actually prehistoric and have been left behind by the eroded shoreline. Some have broken apart to reveal almost turtleshell type patterns...I will have to show you photos...

From there we headed north to Oamaru where Mum held hopes of seeing the rare Yellow Eyed Penguin. We considered booking a dusk spot to view the NZ Blue Penguin before realising they were AUS Fairy Penguins (and we saw them at Philip Island in 2003). Turns out in winter you can see the Yellow-Eyed ones for free since there aren't many around. We headed around to Bushey Beach to the designated viewing spot and waited. After a while we were rewarded with a fur seal sighting as it played in the shallows and waves. Almost giving up hope of seeing a penguin, a couple with binoculars nearby pointed out the first one of the evening waddling up the beach. Tiff missed it because she had gone back to the campervan to get the video camera to tape the seal...

After almost giving up on a second sighting (Tiff and Dad had given up) we headed back to the campervan, but Mum spotted another one heading up the shore. That was enough for her, she had seen her Yellow-Eyed Penguin and we could get out of the cold. Not that you will see much from our photos, they are a bit distant...Lucky I bought a postcard...