An intended early start at 7 was thwarted by queues for both ladies and gents. An oversight in turning snooze to off meant that the next opportunity occurred at 9. A generally slow start without brekkie and on the road at 10.
I made the executive decision to not loiter and use the Internet here in Invercargill but use it later today in the University town of Dunedin. The Internet urgency relates to the NZ$110 in my pocket and zero in the current account. Some electronic funds transfer is in order.
We steamed off down the SH1 through several rather plain town each marked only by the presence of a large ungainly smoke belching factory. At Balclutha, where we reached yesterday, the road becomes the Southern Scenic Route which is now heading north and remarkably unscenic. There is enormous potential for [a] great coastal scenic road -- and with unfettered thousands of miles of water either side, NZ has the potential -- but the astute road maker but routes from city to city with nary a thought for the occupational traveller. The eco-righteous Kiwi [those not towing speedboats behind their 4x4s] now believes that the true way to see NZ is on foot so it's unlikely to change.
Speaking of cities, NZ is a funny old place. Roughly 99% of place, river, mountain anmes etc. are Maori. Every placename you've every heard of in NZ (Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Cook Strait etc.) is the remaining 1%. Today's challenge, name a place or thing in NZ with a Maori name (recent visitor's are excluded [or are required to get the spelling right]).
We roll into Dunedin around 1-ish to another reasonable sized grid-iron city (barring the "octagon" in the middle). Checked in we wander ino town aiming for the free Internet cafe for lunch and the EFT [Electronic Funds Transfer -- I had to think a bit when typing this twenty days later...]. Stumbling across it by accident it seems it doesn't open until Jan 6th. The next cafe doesn't open until Jan 8th. Oh dear. Eventually, we find something open and eat, at last. On the way out later we spot the local McDonalds not only has a McCafe but a Cyber Cafe as well. Fast Internet? We leave that for later as first stop is Baldwin Street, the world's steepest street. We didn't try the obvious (I was reduced to 1st gear on the way up Bluff Hill yesterday so stand little chance here) but watch a couple of young punks tear their engines up to get to the top. It doesn't look very steep until you hear someone struggle up it [and feel like you're looking down on their car]. It's not for show, either, either side and the top are packed with suburban properties.
The main sightseeing today is the Royal Albatross and Yellow-eyed Penguin colonies on the tip of the Otago Pensinsula just south of Dunedin. Here they do have a genuine coastal road where the twisty turny nature made the 50kmh limit a little redundant. The Royal Albatross colony site wasn't what we expected. They've taken the opportunity to protect it and study the only mainland nesting site of the albatross and to help fund things they charge you up to NZ$30 to get in [on the cheapest "tour" you only watch a video!]. Not a free walk round the cliffs, then. We keep our money for tea (there are some priorities) and make some shoddy work of capturing on film the odd bird that flew over the "paupers" cliffs. More interesting and amusing were the seagulls and shags who, to help control their flight when nearing the cliffs, splay their feet out. It's what humans do in freefall but not what you expect a bird to do. The penguin site indicated that it was going to charge an admission fee so we went for the fallback option of Sandfly Bay. Not exactly appealing given the bites on our hands and feet.
At the car park (read: slightly wider bit where the road runs out) we are told it's a 40 minute walk across the beach. The omens are better, though, as there's a mere half dozen cars here. A 40 minute slide down a very steep sand dune and trudge along a beach later and we're faced with a Hooker sea-lion (a rare sea lion) resting on the beach. Not something to mess with as they're not afraid of humans so we gave it a wide berth and clambour up to the hide. After a bit of staring about we finally spot, about 150 yards away, a yellow-eyed penguin, the rarest [penguin] in the world. We're not far off the best time of the day for viewing them but for the twenty minutes we share the hide with roughly a [half] dozen others he remains alone. Maximum zoom reveals a small penguin in the middle of the shot and a liberal amount of imagination is required. Climbing back up the sand dune is hard work but at least the bay isn't swarming with eponymous villains.
It's getting on so we make for tea. After some negotiating the one-way system we plumb [plump?] for the Speight's Brewery restaurant. Not just for a decent (if a bit chilled) pint of ale but some quality nosh as well. 10:30 is not the time to try McDonald's Cyber Cafe [it's shut] but we find somewhere over the road instead. Oddly, my account seems to be somewhat more in credit than is justly due. Bank error in my favour? Who knows but I withdraw the lot anyway. As we write our journals the waterworks of this old ex-hospital haunted hostel are making some raise-the-dead racket which doesn't bode well for a quiet night.
The Chalet, Dunedin S45.87965 E170.49586 Elev. -26m! (we were up a steep hill!)
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.