Duh-Knee-Din NOT Dune-A-Din :P
Trip Start
Feb 28, 2009
1
25
27
Trip End
Apr 12, 2009
Dunedin,
South Island,
New Zealand
Friday, April 10, 2009
However, since stopping there had not been part of the grand plan, the only things we knew about the city was that it has an old train station, and that it (according to Billy Connolly) always rains in Dunedin...
And wouldn't you believe it, when we arrived in Dunedin it was...... RAINING!!!
So we opted for browsing a few shops in the centre (a good way to stay dry :D) and calling it an early night
01 - The Welcome Weather Of Dunedin
. On our previous shopping extravaganzas we mostly bought summer clothes as the weather (and the region) at that point was just too hot for anything other than shorts and t-shirts. In Dunedin however we very quickly found out that we needed more autumn or even winter clothes, what with the wind and rain and even very briefly some HAIL coming down. Luckily Dunedin has plenty of such garments available... We wonder why ;)The next morning the weather didn't look much more promising, but we were 'forced' to head out anyway as we had booked a tour that would take us out to the Otago Peninsula to see the local wildlife there. We were going to be picked up in a small town called Portobello not far outside Dunedin. The drive there was quite enjoyable offering up many pretty vistas of Dunedin and its bay as well as the peninsula itself.
The weather made it all look a bit drab and depressing, but we could clearly see the beauty hidden in it despite all the rain. We both agreed that, with better weather, we could spend many hours taking pictures and just plain enjoying the scenery of the peninsula. However, we had an appointment to keep (The wildlife tour, remember? ;)) so we couldn't hang around to see if the weather would improve.
In Portobello we were picked up by the tour and taken to the very tip of the peninsula where there is a royal albatross breeding colony
02 - At The Beach Near The Penguin Colony
. The tour guide informed us that if we were lucky we would be able to see the young birds that reside there practice their flying skills, but that, due to their size, these birds only fly in strong winds. And as it happened we were indeed lucky... When we got out of the mini-bus the wind almost made all of US fly and we could see three young albatrosses showing off.30 minutes later we hopped back onto the mini-bus and were driven to a private conservation area on a remote farm. From there we had a small trek down a hillside (fairly steep, but no mountaineering gear needed luckily ;)) to a stretch of beach that is home to a small penguin colony. Here we were shepherded into an observation hut so as not to disturb or scare the penguins. By now it was nearing sunset, which meant the penguins were all coming back to the beach from their day fishing in the nearby waters. (Penguin Curfew!!! :P)
Now the 'Penguin Curfew' remark there might seem a bit amusing and all, but it is actually the truth. See, the penguins there share the water with some sea lions and THEY go out hunting when the sun sets. So the yummy little penguins have to be back ashore before the big bad sea lions start roaming the waters :P.
After our time in the observation hut we had to work our way back UP the hill (suddenly it DID seem very steep and longer than on our way down!) only to find out we were then going DOWN the same hill on the other side
03 - I'm A Yummy Little Penguin!
. The trail there leads down to a viewing platform looking down on a fur seal colony. While there were maybe a maximum of 10 penguins, the fur seal colony was absolutely teeming with *drum roll* FUR SEALS! :)Most of the fur seals that we could see there were pups that were too young and small to go out hunting with the adults. They were sitting around on the cliffs waiting for their mothers to return and feed them. Using the time to be quite interested in the weird humans looking down from above as it turned out.
After yet ANOTHER climb up the same hill (heart-attack anyone? :D) we returned to Dunedin and... did NOT crash into bed exhausted.
You might have expected that we, as the couch potatoes that we are, would have been close to death after climbing that hill (TWICE!). However we surprised even ourselves by feeling still reasonably energetic by the time we were back in Dunedin. The fact that it was a nice clear (and DRY) night gave us extra energy and we decided to head out to check out the scottish-inspired buildings that Dunedin is famous for.
Luckily many of the picturesque buildings in Dunedin have nice lighting at night specifically for people like us (or rather Martijn mostly :P). And so we ended up spending a lot of time on the field in front of The First Church Of Otago. (And being very pleased with the results!) The Dunedin train station we also found to be a very pretty building, but we discovered that in order to get it on a picture properly we needed the wide-angle lens that was in our hotel room. By now we were getting rather cold and sleepy and we didn't want to go back to get the lens and take 1 or 2 pictures, so instead we went back to our room and crawled into a nice warm bed
04 - Where's My Din-Dins?
.The following morning luck was truly on our side as it was a gorgeous clear sky with a nice temperature and no sign of impending rain. So after we packed our bags back into the car we took a little walk back into the centre of the city (and brought the wide-angle lens this time ;)). Here we found that the Dunedin train station is just as gorgeous by day as it was by night. Of course we also went by the other buildings that we saw the night before and AGAIN Martijn spent far too long taking pictures of The First Church Of Otago :P. He's not even that religious...
Now that the weather was on our side (on the last day we had in Dunedin of all things!) we decided to go back to the Otago Peninsula before we continued our journey. We only had to drive a few hours that day, so we felt we could spend the morning re-visiting the peninsula now that the sun was making everything look so much nicer.
Driving the same road as we did the day before, we got to fully enjoy the surroundings again and this time we could even stop here and there for some pictures and to wave at a nearby sheep ;).
After our little detour via the peninsula (we actually needed to go in the complete opposite direction :P) we drove back into Dunedin and after a very brief stop at the steepest street in the WORLD (Baldwin Street) 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...
Comments
Done-ee-din :P
I'm not sure I like that DUH bit :P :)
It sounds to ME like you guys are getting used to (even enjoying :P) physical exercise - maybe we should book you on some two day hiking tours next time you come over - muahahahaha !! *tease* actually I wouldnt do one of those - I cant take my hairdryer !! *grin*
Re: Done-ee-din :P
We actually spent several minutes saying Duh-Knee-Din as well as Done-Eee-Din to try and work out which was the better phonetical spelling ;)
Dunedin
Heb je mijn tic overgenomen, kerken fotograferen.
Re: Re: Done-ee-din :P
You're actually right I just tried them both :P just shows how weird Kiwis pronounciation is !!