High Street Court Motel Dunedin

... and raining and freezing the next. It is difficult to plan outings because the weather forecasts are so unreliable. But generally it is in the low 40s and sometimes gets freezing at night (0-5C). <br><br>The past week has been fast and exciting. There are always things going on and my to-do list is getting longer each day. I hope to do at least a weekly blog entry but we will see how things are once lectures begin.<br><br>That's all for now.<br><br><br><br><br>

... we continued our journey northwards. By now we expected that we had seen Dunedin and its surroundings as thoroughly as the time allowed us to. But on our way out of the city we got such a wicked view of (you guessed it!) the Otago Peninsula (from across the bay) that we had to stop and take several more pictures. After this un-scheduled stop we drove onwards and managed to get out of reach of Dunedin's pull (FINALLY!)... Definitely a region to re-visit if we ever get the chance...

... 5 minutes back to the Petrified forest as it is not until just before dusk that the adult penguins come back onshore and feed their young. It was a delight to watch the penguins come ashore. The adults have a yellow band from the eyes round the back of the head and they have large very pink feet. The mums and dads did not seem in too much of a hurry as they slowly sauntered and hopped their way up the rocky foreshore. Most of the young hopped some of the distance down the ...

I arrived to the city of Dunedin in the evening but since it was a beautiful day and there was still plenty of light, I decided to go up the Signal hill to get a nice view of the whole city. After that I went to the steepest road in the world. This whole city is full with steep roads (a lot like San Francisco), but the steepest one is so steep you've got to stay on the first gear of the car in ...

... few exceptions - there always are I am afraid! All generated much tutting and a few muted comments. It was a great sight to see the penguins swim in and then cross the beach, up the hill and past all the humans to get to their burrows for the night. At this time of year the male penguins do the fishing, come back at dusk and then make for the burrows to "vomit" the fish up and allow the females and the chicks to ...

... be very dangerous as they are much faster on their feet than they look. We took a few photos and then left them to it. There were a couple more Sea Lions down near the penguin colony and just as we approached one of them got up and ran into the surf. Tom was right they can move very fast when they want, they look much like a bear when they run. They run on all fours, not like the seals who have to lever themselves along on their front flippers. Tom said the only problem ...

... to the beach. we were hoping to see penguins but were surprized to see 8-12 seals and sea lions lounging along the beach! now i know where it gets its name! we had so much fun walking to each one (or pair) and taking pictures and video of them. like surat bay and waipapa point in the catlins, we were able to get pretty close and get some great views of them. we walked to the end of the beach up to the penguin hide in the dunes hoping to catch a few coming out of the water. sadly ...

... t know where to run to, because if we ran up to the dunes, they sleep in there, so we'd be likely to come across some more! Thankfully we got past them and into the hide. Lots of yellow eyed penguins were returning from the ocean. They looked all disorientated when they came out of the surf. They shook themselves down, then waddled up the beach in pairs up to the cliff. They then managed to hop all the way up the side of the cliff, such incredible climbers! They were ...

The Otago Peninsula is usually known for its exciting diversity of wildlife and its spectacular scenery. It is here that you can find the Royal Albatross, fur seals, yellow eyed penguins (the world's rarest penguins don't you know), blue penguins, sea lions, seabirds: gulls, terns, herons and a wide variety of shags (great, little, spotted... - there are many shags in New Zealand). Many tourists visit the Otago Pensinsula to be part of arguably the most precious ...

... how the chocolate is made, and how they make certain things like Buttons and Easter Eggs - and we even got to see 1 tonne of liquid chocolate fall down an empty silo - like a massive waterfall which was pretty impressive.<br><br>The best thing about the tour though was the massive amount of freebies that you get!!!<br><br>We are off to the Speights brewery tomorrow and are also gonna go to the Otago Pennisula as it is meant to be really nice.<br><br>We went out for a few ...