Moeraki Boulders

Thursday, 17 December

This morning we left Dunedin and drove out the Otago Peninsula (45 kms round trip), stopping en route to have brekky at the funky Penguin Cafe in the village of Portobello.

View from Penguin Cafe

We then drove out to the Royal Albatross Centre at the end of the road. Managed by the Department of Conservation and operated by the Otago Peninsula Trust, this is the world's only mainland breeding colony.

Pukekura (Taiaroa Head)

 It is wild and rugged coastline heavily scented with sea gull and albatross droppings.

Takiharuru (Pilots Beach)

Also on the Otago Peninsula, one can take night hikes to see the blue faery penguins as well as see the endangered yellow-eyed penguins. http://www.penguinplace.co.nz/


Next stop was my marker: The Moeraki (pronounced: mo-RA-kee) Boulders. http://www.moerakiboulders.com/

These impressively large stone spheres took 4-5 million years to form. They are like giant geodes.

Perspective of size...

Like giant geodes

After this we continued northward to the delightful Victorian town of Oamaru
(pronounced O-mah-ru), mistakingly thinking that this is where the famous Fleur Cafe was located... WRONG! Fleur's is in the township of Moeraki, so will have to be savored virtually as we were not able to do so actually.  http://www.fleursplace.com/

Nonetheless, Oamaru is a darling destination! The people are oh-so-very nice and helpful, and the town itself is oh-so-charming. Were it not so very far away, it would definitely be a place we would like to frequent.

Hotel

Church

Steam Punk 

Oamaru served as a major port during gold rush times. It therefore was considered as a place to situate the capital of NZ. However, Dunedin was determined to be a safer port and ultimately Wellington was chosen.




Steam Punk HG http://steampunkoamaru.co.nz/
is something that we wish we had had time to experience. It has "marker potential"!