The Mill House Oamaru

Woke up to a promising looking sky, but it only went downhill from there(and so did we). Stopped in puzzling world and did the maze. Really cook building and pictures all around. Stopped in cromwell and wandered around the main town, before checking out the old town. South to Alexandra and checked out the museum at the info ...

... washroom. WELL! The manager wasn't on duty until 9, so that meant I'd have to wait another hour. Not for Nicki! I went in search of a shower room, and having had the hostel experience, they are pretty accessable. So, I decided to go have my shower, and pay on my way out. Since I was done drying my hair and ready to go by 8:40, the manager still wasn't available. So I walked on out, feeling fresh and clean...and pretty darn sneaky!

... it was a sign that she should buy it and took it over to Fleur, who explained she had started to sign it for someone else but had spelt their name incorrectly, however she knew that one day someone with that name would come along. So, in addition, she wrote "you are the one - thanks for finding us in this small part of Aotearoa. Nau mai, haere mai'. Maybe it was just meant to be.......

... still beautiful - as is the road into it and out of it - mountain scenery beside deep green lakes - very reminiscent of the Canadian lakes in the Rockies - turquoise with the elements from the glaciers in the mountains. When we woke up in Queenstown on Sunday morning the tops of the hills were covered in snow - first week of Autumn and winter had arrived! We stayed another night en route to Dunedin and the cold winter weather followed us. 9 degrees in Dunedin ...

Apologies for the last 2 entries, I might have been on the beers... Stopped at a couple of places on the way to Oamaru. A windswept part of the coast where sea lions live, hanging out with their mates, doing the usual fighting,swimming, chasing, sleeping. We watched them for a bit as you could get quite close and they didn´t bat an eyelid, or should that be flipper. Then off to a part of the coast where strange round shaped rocks reside. This is ...

... called Fleur's... great fresh seafood from a few feet away... they catch their own fish... so we went... FANTASTIC FOOD! wonderful seafood... the chowder was awesome, the blue cod wrapped in bacon was delicious and eunice's flatfish with two kinds of sauce was perfect for two good meal starved travelers! :).... "yes" it cost more than our typical meal, but it was well worth it to visit a landmark and experience some good culinary food...

... D-I-A-B-O-L-I-C-A-L. Avoid. So after a pretty uneventful day in Oamaru it was off to Dunedin to visit Willy Wonka and pick up Quirkey. En Route we encountered the Moueraki Boulders which are some odd looking stones on a beach, no one knows how they got there but they are pretty cool to photograph. Except for the bit where the tide was coming in and Emmet and I both managed to get our jeans soaking wet being "artistic." Not sure if the end results merit it!!

... first place, the rare penguins were observed for free, and they were protected by a warden who was happy to help us observe them safely. In the second case, someone charging money for the privilege imposed a rule I didn't know about until after they had my money, and spoiled my enjoyment on the unfortunately valid grounds that a bus-load of tourists can't be trusted to behave. More on Oamaru itself in tomorrow's episode.

... the yellow eyed penguins as they would probably all be out at sea anyway and it looked a long walk! I wandered down the cliff a bit and right there in front of me was a cute little fur seal. I got some pics of him poking his nose in the air and showing off his whiskers! I got back into the car and made my way to Moeraki. I got a nice hot choc to warm up then wandered down to the beach. Wow, the boulders were so cool. So perfectly round and had a kind of ...

... idolaat van haar ben, maar zo zit het niet, denk ik. Ik heb meer het gevoel zoveel in haar manier van denken en schrijven te herkennen, de manier waarop zij soms als een toeschouwer totaal verbaasd naar het leven om haar heen kijken kan. <br><br>Nog eventjes bij de Yellow Eyed Pinguin Colonie hier op bezoek geweest en zowaar: daar kwam er eentje aan land.... en ging weer het water in.... en kwam toen echt aan land! Oh en uiteraard ook op dit strand weer NZ Furseals: zeehonden. :-D