The Way South 2

Kaikoura to the Otago Peninsula

02.04.2011 - 06.04.2011 14 °C

Saturday 2nd April

After a FREEZING cold night in Kaikoura, we drove a long, long way in an effort to avoid the entire Christchurch area. We stopped half way at Greta Valley for a cup of coffee in a cafe obviously quite popular with bikers!

All the motorbikes at Greta Valley

We had another stop at Methven for a well deserved beer at the Blue Pub and drove the final few kilometres to Waihi Gorge scenic reserve near Geraldine. This was a lovely DOC camp-site with a lovely view but full of VERY vocal cattle! :s I didn't get much sleep!

View from our tent at Waihi Gorge SR (minus cows)

Sunday 3rd April

Today we drove to Oamaru and Moeraki to see the famous Moeraki Boulders! It started to rain heavily so we hung out in the only open business in the small fishing village: a tavern!

Moeraki Boulders

Monday 4th April

Today we drove back along the coast to Oamaru, the "Steampunk capitol of NZ"! As it was still pouring down with rain we did a lot of indoor things. We visited the North Otago Museum, the art gallery and a small car museum (which included a Peugeot 205...).

A tractor and caravan that completed a round the world trip!

We visited the Whitestone Cheese Factory and sampled a selection of award winning cheeses including the famous Windsor Blue which is apparently very popular on the set of Scrubs!

"Cat Mince" in the local pet store!

In the evening we visited a wildlife reserve that had a small hide to view the colony of yellow eyed penguins returning from sea to their nests. We only saw one come in but we saw a few nesting in the bushes that were pretty cute! We also saw lots of seals which lived all along the coastline.

A Moeraki seal!

We stayed another night in the same camp-site, did some washing and had a few more beers in the local tavern.

View of Moeraki village from our campsite

Tuesday 5th April

The sun finally came out for a few hours which allowed us to do some serious admin (the car was filled with a million tourist flyers and crap) and get all our clothes and tent dried out! We drove onwards to Dunedin, had a walk around and visited the Chinese Garden which was a nice shelter from the rain for half an hour!

The Chinese Garden and Paul feeding the gold fish

We drove out to the Otago Peninsula and found a camp-site in Portobello. We decided to stay in a small backpackers room as it was STILL pouring down with rain! We sat in our room reading all night lamenting the fact that our funds had dwindled...

Wednesday 6th April

Today we drove back into Dunedin to visit the NZ Sports Hall of Fame in the old railway station. In the afternoon we drove to the very end of the Otago Peninsula to see the Royal Albatross Centre which we decided was too expensive to walk around on a wind blown cliff face, so we walked to Victory Beach which was 2 miles of completely deserted white sand!

View from Albatross Centre