Ian had broken the mechanism for the glove compartment on the Toyota Corolla, not to mention the hinge on the boot of the car which he buckled in the wind, twice, so our first task today was to obtain assistance from the service department of the Toyota garage in Dunedin. The service department was closed for Christmas so we left the car in its broken state.
Our first stop today was at Shag Point in the quest to find more yellow eyed penguins. There weren't any present at noon but there were a few fur seals basking on a rock.
From Shag Point we drove to Moeraki and enjoyed lunch by the sea watching a pod of Hectors dolphins swim close to the shore. Moeraki is renowned for its boulders which are septarian concresions on the beach exposed by erosion, many of them over 1.5 metres in diameter. In reality they are extremely attractive and curious. They struck me as honeycombed dinosaur eggs, like cocoons. My camera got quite carried away with itself and the button just kept on depressing... They were remarkable and said to be concreted over 4 million years within sandstone. The boulders decay from the core, radiating outwards yet the calcite layers are still very visible today.
A short drive further up the East coast took us to Oamaru where we wandered around the blue penguin colony site and was immediately deterred by the huge granstand the management had erected to earn some tourist revenue. Needless to say we didn't see any blue penguins but then again it was several hours before dusk.
A short pause at a 45 degrees South plaque which was laid in 1939 preceded a drive to Otematata, where we stay tonight. On the way there we visited 'Earthquakes' Geological Formations which didn't offer us much in the way of interest.
Our journey inland took us past Lake Waitaki, Lake Aviemore and Lake Benmore, all three of which are dams, the latter being the largest manmade lake in New Zealand at 75 square kilometres. Both Lake Aviemore and Lake Benmore were large enough such that you could drive across the dam walls.
Our journey throughout the day from Dunedin to Otematata covered 288 kilometres.
After dinner we were speaking with Ron, a farmer, who we reckoned owned the hotel where we were staying. He told us that he'd love to go to England, perhaps when his children, who are aged 13 and 8, are older. He said perhaps he'd sell up this place and go, indicating to us that he owned the Otematata Lakes Hotel.