New Zealand South Island - Feb. 5th - Feb 14th

After we got back from the hike, we broke camp and left the Aoraki/Mt. Cook area and drove back to the east coast to a town called Oamaru. Their claim to fame is both yellow and blue penguin colonies. It was a sixties kind of town and their old harbor area was constructed of buildings made of "Whitestone"......First we went down to the wharf to see the yellow ones because they come up on shore earlier then the blue ones and we got to see a couple of the penguins come up on the beach.
FIND THE PENGUIN IN THE PHOTO
But by the time we got there somehow others had already climbed up the dunes to feed the chicks, sometimes as much as 50 or 100 feet up. You just can't figure out how they do it. We were supposed to go back to see the blue penguins at 9:15 (they come up after dark) but dinner ran over, the wine was good, and we blew off the blue penguins. That night we stayed at a B&B, owned by a very strange guy called Ronald. The place was great and very cute with views out to the ocean, but Ronald was definitely quite scary.
In the morning we left and drove South to Dunedin and the Otago Penninsula. The drive around the penninsula was very nice and we stopped and did a boat trip to see the coastline and the Royal Albatrosses, fur seals and dolphins. We just don't get the attraction with the birds....Tom did turn a very nice shade of green on this trip, you would think one of these days we would remember his sea bands! We did see plenty of dolphins and seals and it was a nice little trip on a beautiful day.









Afterwards, we went to Dunedin and walked around the city. It was Waitangi Day, which is a national holiday. This is the day that the Maori signed a treaty with the Europeans. It seems like the Maori got screwed just like the American Indians..There was a street fair going on and music in the main octogon.

Next stop the Caitlins, which is the southern coast of the south island. This is a rustic coast, with major wildlife and nature preserves.



We stopped first at a place called Kaka Point which, at the time we thought had a nice beach and then drove to Nugget Bay. At Nugget Bay, you walked out to the lighthouse and had a clear view of the fur seals resting and playing below. The view was terrific with the waves breaking on the rocks. We continued along the coast and stopped at Purakaunui falls, which weren't all that great because there had been no rain (lucky us) and we thought we were on our way to Invercargill for the night. Until we found Porpoise Bay. This place was great!

We pulled in to check it out and take a few pictures, found they had trailer and tent sites and found out we could camp on the dunes right above the beach. So, we decided to spend the night. What a good choice. This place not only had a great beach, they had yellow penguins, blue penguins and in the morning the dolphins
came to play in the bay.









We had a beautiful sunset and got up in the morning for an amazing sunrise. It's all good!




When we arrived in Invercargill the next day, we were very happy we spent the night before at Porpoise Bay. We posted a blog and got out of dodge as quick as we could and made our way to Te Anau, our jump off place for tramping the Milford Track. We got there with a day to spare so we could get everything ready for the tramp....(Joe S. this means a hike); shopping and packing. Te Anau is a cross between a vacation spot and a backpackers haven. You had "bus people" mixed in with backpackers so it was really a blend of people. Cute town, but definately a tourist destination.
The Milford Track is one of New Zealand's Great Walks and is a 33.5 mile tramp thru some of New Zealand's most beautiful unspoiled country. We just had to decide the night before if we should back out!