Nov 8 Christchurch to Dunedin

After arriving at my host, Gavin's lovely home, I crashed for a 13 hour sleep...which was delightful.  The time difference here is almost a full day ahead, (20 hours) so the adjustment is like traveling to the east coast from the west coast...only you are a day ahead. All that to say that adjusting is much easier than say, going to the Philippines where it is half of a day and you always feel like you are starting your day at midnight.  Because I got in before the end of the work day, Gavin had arranged for me to pick up a key from his neighbor, and I went right in and fell into my deep slumber.  Therefore, I met him early the next morning before he went off to work.  A very nice fellow who invited me to cook a little breakfast (I chose poached eggs on toast) after which I called an Uber ride, headed to the car rental and picked up my Hyundai "Styla" ride.  Then it was back to Gavin's (through a construction zone where I passed my favorite sign of the day to "merge like a zip") to pick up my luggage, stop at a Pac N Save for some groceries, Burger King for a quick bite (I hope that will be the only time I stoop to hit an American burger chain for food) and off to the open road.

The distance between Christchurch and Dunedin is 225 miles, on a road, as most are in NZ, which is a two-lane road with periodic take over points where slower cars stay left and faster ones can use the right lane to overtake.  I often sat in the left lane to let the locals zoom past me, but there was a time or two that little Styla and I overtook a big truck...take that, slow beastie truck!

The weather was perfect...a sunny 70 degree day with a few clouds, I couldn't have ordered up anything better--thanks for the lovely greeting NZ! The first half of the trip took me through some lovely farmland, complete with sheep and cows and the occasional sign for "sheep poo" and "cow poo" for sale. Eventually, the road crept close to the sea and the views became magnificent.  

My first stop was at Moeraki boulders.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moeraki_Boulders A short little jaunt down to the beach to see the odd round boulders...which to look at you think someone had to have glued these pieces of rock together...but no, it happened naturally--AMAZING! 

There are little rest stops along the route, which I believe are used for the 'self-contained' campers/motorhomes (a bunch of which you see traveling the roads) which are absolutely beautiful. I stopped off at a tree covered one which overlooked a sandy beach and thought it as good a place as any to take a little break and play my flute.  Yep--I brought my flute along and figured it time to sit and relax and play.  I mean, how many times do you get to have the calming sound of real waves accompany you as you play the flute?  Actually, I have recently taken up playing again--having purchased a new flute which is quite a step up from my 8th-grade flute--I find that my soul craves tranquility and resurrecting this old musical talent has brought me a lot of peace, so I brought the instrument along on my journey. Gorgeous-tranquility-filled-ocean-accompanying-music-session over, it was back on the road to Dunedin.

One of my goals on this southern road trip is not merely to get from point A to B, but rather to really enjoy the journey;  serenity prayer meets reality.  So, when a sign pointed to a "scenic route", of course, I took it...and it was scenic.  the drive took me through hillside sheep farms butting against the sea; I got out to take a few pictures and heard the sheep and lamb bleating, it was truly idyllic. 

I reached Dunedin, and really lovely little university city and headed out to see the Blue penguins, the smallest penguins in the world.  The penguins are on end of the Otago peninsula, and for anyone who has driven the road to Hana in HI, you have an idea of what this road was like...right up against the water a windy and slow, but beautiful drive.  I was hoping to catch the rare Yellow-eyed penguins, but I had just missed the last tour of the day, they unlike the blue penguins, actually come in earlier than sunset.  Oh well, I  just continued down the road to Blue penguins.  The conservatory I visited has a viewing platform where you can watch as the rafts of penguins come in from the sea (they use the cover of darkness to avoid predators) and they make their way into their nests on the hillside.  They, like all penguins I have seen, were absolutely delightful!  Some were quite loud as they arrived at their nests, what the tour guides called, 'having a domestic'...which made me giggle...apparently the males and females take turns tending the nests each day while the other goes out to fish, and sometimes the welcome home is a bit rough. They have special lights which the penguins are used to, and asked not to use flashes to take pictures as they can eventually blind the penguins. Taking pictures of a moving animal in low light was challenging, but I got a few and I will always remember the little guys hopping over small stones (which to them seemed like big boulders) and waddling up the path to their nests...their blue-black backs gleaming in the light and white fronts distinguishing them from the dark hillside.

Twisting back to town, my phone ran out of battery, the dumb car charger not really charging the battery at all.  I was left to the pre-printed directions I had with me to get to my B&B for the night.  At this point, it was quite late, around 11pm and I was struggling to find a good starting point to base my directions on...after a number of false turns, I eventually made it around midnight to a host who was worried (I had sent an email earlier mentioning that I was going to see the penguins) that I had gone to see penguins on my own, had slipped and fallen and lay somewhere abandoned on a rocky shore.  Graeme and Cathy were so kind and welcoming...even at such a late hour...I felt so bad for having made them worry, but it was an unintended adventure to arrive at their home.  Nevertheless, the room is comfortable and I felt very welcomed.