Tuesday 4th March - Dunedin

The day started very wet and windy. The rain ran down the road outside the backpackers like a river. How glad we were that this weather hit us whilst we have a car hire vehicle. We set off North to Moeraki to see the yellow eyed penguins at the lighthouse and to see the Moeraki boulders. It stopped raining when as we got there and these rare breed of penguins were exactly where both Bob and Carole said they would be.

The Moeraki Boulders on the beach are an interesting geological curiosity being flint nodules 1.2m

in diameter that only occur in this part of the world

We finished off the day with a lovely homely evening meal with Carole and Yana

Monday 3rd March - Dunedin

Had a short tour of the coastline South of Dunedin today, along by Brighton.  The rain and winds were still disturbingly regular and strong with just a few sunny spells.  We got a good soaking whenever we seemed to step out the car.  Later in the day we met up with Carole and Jana at the Irish pub in The Quadrant, the centre of Dunedin.  We enjoyed a good chat while nibbling wedges with bacon and cheese and for after muffins with coffee. We were given some sound advice on where to visit on the next part of our trip, depending on weather.  We have been reliably informed that this weather here is characteristically poor for this time of the year, so we are once again glad we have completed our cycling and are now car based.

One of the brick walls down a side street in central Dunedin.  Just couldn't resist a photo. 

Afternoon munches with Carole and Jana

London is 189 thousand times further away than the nearest toilets! 

Sunday 2nd March - Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula

Today we picked up a little car to help us run around the local area.  We have called the car Smoky as it is light grey. The car runs well despite having 209865 kms on the clock, that's about 125000 miles.  We took a short drive along the Otago peninsula to Taiaroa Head and the Royal Albatross Colony.  We managed to capture some local wildlife on camera including an albatross in flight. On the way back we noticed a bay called Sandfly Bay.  Catherine insisted on avoiding that as it bought back bad memories of earlier on the trip.  Her wounds from those creatures are taking their time to heal.  

A lovely view across Otago Harbour

One of the local seal colony just resting on the rocks

What a wonderful sight!

Just had to take a shot of this.

Look behind you Catherine, the storm is coming!

The rain came again. Tony got soaked taking this photo.

Saturday 1st March - A day in Dunedin

Well we did not see that much of Dunedin yesterday as we arrived in an absolute storm. In fact the lady at the backpackers could not believe that we had not noticed the station building which according to her is the most photographed building in the world! Ummm...... not sure about that one ... How would you know?

We got soaked yesterday three times and no heaters at all in the backpackers to dry things off! So we went to bed with wet hair. This is what the papers said today about it going cold and wet:-

They say that it will stay with winds from the South for the next week, so remaining cold!

Today we walked down the big hill and headed to the station on the way we went passed the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum. To be honest I had had lots of tea that morning and I wanted to use their toilet, but the museum was free and looked good. In fact it was marvelous the best museum I have ever been into. Already Dunedin was looking good!

We spent an hour in there and we were fully entertained. Usually the word museum makes me want to sleep but this was so interactive and cleverly and expensively presented!

Catherine practices for the Iron Lady competition

But we still got a bit of cycling done although to be honest it was on a stand and roller, good fun all the same!

We then headed for the station. We had wheeled our bikes out of a rain soaked car park entrance yesterday. So now we entered the main foyer and WOW. Just look at those ceramics everywhere!

This is a real actual ticket office not a museum piece!

Even the floor was a work of art. How many feet had walked over this mosaic on the way to their train every day!

The station building from a distance. They say that this is like Edinburgh and has Scottish routes. Many of the buildings are made from dark grey stone and do have a Scottish or Lake District look.

We have finished our cycling and Catherine said that we must now restrict our diet as we will eventually just be sitting in a car. We went passed this place though:-

So we went in, not on the tour but to have a look at the shop. When we came out we had these:-

At 220g per bar I make that 1.1kg of chocolate. That's another inch or two then!

Got back to the backpackers and booked for three more nights, but asked for a heater in our room. We now have a lovely electric radiator! So yesterday we felt cold wet and tired, today we feel:-

Friday 28th February - Middlemarch to Dunedin

It rained and it rained.  It started at about 7.30 in the morning and didn't stop until after we go on the train at 12.30.  The journey on the train took us along The Taieri Gorge. The camp site we stayed at last night was just perfect as we took advantage of their lounge area to watch TV and dry some of our stuff on the heater.  We congratulated ourselves on our planning as, for the most part, our cycle touring part of our overall trip was without serious cold rain. Anyway it was cold and wet all morning. So on the train in the warm before we set of someone had a snooze. 

The train journey down the Taieri gorge to Dunedin was delightful and we could see clearly the snow fall on the hills as we chugged along.  

We were very impressed with the scenery on the journey and pleased with our decision to take the train.  The sky looked blue where we were headed.

At Hindon we had a short stop and were able to step of the train for a quick look around. 

We arrived in Dunedin at about 3.30 and as we disembarked the train the heavens opened and the wind howled and the hill to the backpackers hostel we booked was enormously steep.  We were pleased to get checked in at the Chalet Backpackers and begin to dry out in our comfortable room.