We woke before the sunrise and I got us ready while Zuz took a shower. It was a corker of a sunrise, but could have been nicer is it was not for the foreground of a toilet block and a dozen campervans. We pulled out at 6:45 with the lights on and headed into town to check it out. We caved in as we saw on of the only golden arches that we had come across for some coffee to go. Don’t normally use macca’s as a tourist guide, but as they had photos of the old town section, we had to check it out. We did a couple of laps stopping a few times to check out the old buildings in the harbour area and the main drag.
Then onto the road south as the clouds were giving some lovely light effects. We stopped at the Moeraki Boulders, where it seemed luck was on our side again as we discovered it was low tide when we got down to the beach. These impressive boulders are about 4 – 5 feet tall and look like they are marbles that had fallen off the playing table up above. The broken ones were interesting with the patterns and markings. I am sure a geologist would have a wonderful and amazing explanation. We got back up to the toilet before the café and more importantly the toilet opened. Headed straight on through to Dunedin, by which time the loo stop was priority.
Followed the first little blue sign (which by the way accompany any town along the way and are a camper’s best friend) we saw and came to a nice little toilet block. So, in I went. Oh oh, a high tech dunny. Pushed a button to close the door and it all went down hill from there. An automatic paper dispenser….push a button and it feeds out a small length of paper. Push again for some more then once again. Now even though I wanted more a forth push of the button was not allowed. On a timer. So one has to wait to start the whole process again. It also flushed when you stood up, washed your hands and opened the door. What a waste. People, please leave one of the most basic of human functions as just that. Basic.
After a rant to the video camera it was on through Dunedin, past some very nice buildings (notably the train station), past the Cadbury factory (still boycotting due to package resizing at same price) and onto the 30km long Otago peninsula. We rang the albatross centre and had booked a ticket for a tour at 11:00. We were lucky again as today was the last day tours were run for 2 months due to the courtship rituals of the birds. We drove the slow road that hugged the coast of the peninsular. And I mean hugged. Seemed like we were tethered to the water by a 10 m long rope. Not a good road if you suffer from motion sickness. But, yet again a very scenic trip.
We got to the Albatross centre with time to spare so after collecting our tickets and having a quick look around it was out to the van for a late breakfast. Somehow the van made a lunge for the muesli as Zuz opened a new packet resulting in most of it landing on the floor.
Back inside for the tour first saw us taking in an educational session and video from our French guide. Some very interesting facts we learnt. If you want to know….Google is your friend. A short walk up a steep hill saw us at the observatory where we could see 3 of the remaining 12 chicks at a distance. The observatory also overlooked a rookery of shags. Spent a fair bit of the time looking through the binoculars. Were treated to a fly-by of some 10 spoonbills and the views of the harbour and coast were great. One of the young albatross even stretched a wing for us. WOW! It was huge and folded up like a German convertible.
After the tour we headed to the observation platform on the other side of the car park to hope for sight of an albatross on the wing. There were many more shags nesting on the cliff and flying around. We waited and waited. The sun came out and showed just how pristine this coastline was. We also saw seals to go with the plethora of sea birds. The wind was starting to pick up a little, then out to sea a fair way I spotted one. Unmistakable and incredible the way they seem to dance and glide over the water. Truly a majestic sight and well worth the wait even if it was from a distance. Now that we knew what we were looking for and the wind was getting stronger we saw several more, all be it further out. Watching these creatures in the binoculars, some as pairs was something I could have done all day. Their grace was almost hypnotic.
But as we wanted to get to the other side of the Island to camp tonight, it was best we left. We high-tailed it back down the peninsular and that windy road, this time under bright sunshine, through the suburbs of Dunedin and heading west. The weather soon started to close and it rained for a majority of the drive. We stoped for fuel, both van and human. A couple of pies and the nicest supermarket chocolate muffin in existence. With about 80kms to go we saw a break in the weather on the horizon. It so happened that we kept heading for that better weather all the way to the campground. We decided on Fiord land great views holiday park as we had free wireless internet through Kea and needed to check mail and do some banking. We passed more fine scenery, snowy mountains and some 2.38 million sheep. But only 2 black ones. After some 292km from Dunedin we had reached our destination.
The van park was awesome and clean. Hedges were in between sites and a new amenities block / kitchen. Probably one of the nicest van parks I have laid eyes on. We backed onto our site and opened up the back doors to overlook the lake and snow covered peaks covered in mist. It was an awesome sight. We hustled up some spag bol for dinner, charged batteries, checked the net and downloaded our photos. There were some stunners from Mt Cook, if I do say myself. Then it was shower time and it was another awesome shower once I was able to work it out. It is amazing how many different designed of taps we can have in the world. Just where you though you had seen em all. Did not take long at all to fall asleep.