Otago

Otago Peninsula, Thursday 26 February

A rather shabby but comfortable enough backpackers (my first choice was full) on the Otago Peninsula, which apparently is full of German speakers.

Meandered from Oamaru here, stopping where it took my fancy. First stop was the Moeraki Boulders, which were way too busy with loads of people, none of whom were paying the slightest bit of attention to anyone else so getting photos without people was extremely difficult. Doable, but difficult. I planned a coffee at the restaurant but they were a) packed and b) inefficient, so I walked away and didn't pay the $2 fee to see the boulders (Doc doesn't make you pay it so why should you?)

After that, I turned off for Shag Point where there were some seals, some bright green kelp, and some gulls with fluffy chicks. Awww. Then it was lunchtime, so I turned off at Karitane and found a spot by the beach which was pretty enough. That led to a lovely coast road drive, crossing and re-crossing the railway line.

Had to drive through Dunedin but it turned out to be relatively painless and easy. Then on to the peninsula road, which hugs the coastline closely. Decided to stop at Larnach Castle (“New Zealand's only castle”) as the weather wasn't looking too hot and it would be indoors. It was actually a worthwhile visit. The gardens were quite pretty and the castle itself very attractive in an elaborate Victorian sort of way. Lots of carving and plasterwork and that sort of thing, pretty tiles on the floor and great views from the castellated tower. I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would, which is always a bonus.

I reckoned I still had time to spare, so drove to what the Lonely Planet described as the “impressive Chasm” - without explaining what the Chasm was, though I had a pretty good idea which wasn't too far off the mark. There was a long dirt road and then a hill with a lookout, which I failed to get to after reaching a overgrown patch of gorse that was not worth battling through. The Chasm proved – as I'd guessed – to be a sort of gully in the cliff. The angle of the lookout point was such that I couldn't see the bottom, but looking the other way was good too with the turquoise water foaming at the foot of the cliff.

Then to the hostel, including hazardous parking on a steep hill and scary departure for the penguin reserve. My penguin tour was led by a squeaky-voiced lady named Rhonda who talked quite fast but quite simply, presumably for the benefit of the furriners in the group (two other Brits, three Japanese, one American or possibly Canadian and four French). She was a little on the annoying side but am sure she meant well. First we saw the penguin hospital, sheltering some underweight juveniles rescued from further down the coast. After that into a bus to the reserve, where Rhonda led us at breakneck pace from one hide to another to find penguins. The first few were not particularly visible, bits of them being hidden by foliage and the like, but right at the end we saw a parent penguin and its very cute chick right close up. I only wished I'd had a tripod to get less wobbly shots, some are a bit blurry. Anyway it was worth doing to see the penguins up close rather than a million miles away.

Tomorrow on to Dunedin.

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Dunedin, Friday 27th February

Not much done today. Weather better than anticipated and I wished I had shorts on rather than jeans. Nice hostel with odd name of Hogwartz (one assumes the z is to prevent any sniffiness on the part of JK Rowling or associates). Anyway, despite the silly name it's spacious and clean and I have a double bed. :)

Had a nightmare finding my way around Dunedin and initially, instead of trying to get to the hostel, went to the museum and paid for two hours' parking. The museum was pretty good, a variety of exhibits including a particularly good one on the South Island. Then I found my way (eventually) to the hostel and parked on the horrid narrow street behind it, which I'm not leaving until tomorrow morning!

Lunch, art gallery – free, with a good selection of European paintings that you could get right up close to. I stuck my nose up to a Monet, a Constable or two, a Pissaro, plus some Gainsboroughs and Reynolds and wondered where the security was. Bless NZ. Next stop the cathedral, which was extremely English and had the organist practising plus some annoying Japanese tourists being noisy and taking photos of each other in the nave. Grrr.

I wandered up the main street to the university campus, by which time the sun had come out, and took photos of the clock tower and the also very English-style old buildings. They so copied Oxford and Cambridge in building Otago.

Tomorrow, the Catlins for a complete change of scene.