New Zealand - Day 8

Travelled 344 kms

It was cold last night, but this morning wow. Awoke once again to deep blue skies and the sun wrapping on the window like a tick man with a sponge!
It was a good night, no bites, for our first time here. We were going to get the bus into Dunedin town centre, about four kms away but decided to go to the i site first. Walking round town centres you can do at home, reluctantly. But this is not home, so. We’d get all the info and then bugger off up to see arguably the most majestic bird on the planet. We bought our tickets to visit the Alby Centre and while there we bought some tickets to go on a train journey tomorrow. It just keeps getting better.

The drive along the Otago Peninsular to the colony is special, very special. It’s only twenty-nine clicks long but you’re advised to allow an hour for the trip. There is a wee town on the coast called Portobello and it is one of the few places in the world that I’ve seen that I would be happy to live in. A real charmer of a place, not unlike Ballygalley. But with steroids and huge wow factor. Parts of the road have a sheer unprotected drop of hundreds of feet. The kind of road that makes you take your time. Unless you are a local. They scared the life out of us. I suppose they see the camper vans and think they'll buzz the tourists or maybe just show us their driving prowess. Anyway they went careering down the corkscrew like roads and disappeared never to be seen again, by us.

We found a chippy van on the way down and called in for a coffee. The poor girl running it would not last too long at home. It took twenty minutes for a coffee to arrive and another ten for our change! No, she did not get a tip other than to get her finger out. We got talking to a young German couple who were so sweet. Travelling brings out the best in people, and I believe the more you travel the more you have to offer the world.


What you've done becomes the judge of what you're going to do - especially in other people's minds. When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. ~William Least Heat Moon, Blue Highways



The cost of the visit to see the albatrosses was $45. I wondered if good Prince Charlie had paid this on his visit a couple of years earlier. He got to get really up close and personal, but then he always does with big birds these days. We were in a protective hide, all air con and built in such a way that our presence could neither be seen nor heard by the outside world. It was magical watching the parent birds with their young. They only have one young every two years don't you know. A very worth while read is in the next read, a fascinating bird not unlike that one that used to be on "Countdown"!


The Royal Albatross. They are magnificent looking in flight but because of their sheer size they need wind to help get them airborne. Today was very still, as you'd imagine. Came all this way to witness something serenely magical and saw nothing. Well at least M was in good form! It was a very worthwhile trip, but if I was to do it again I'd check the weather forecast first. It's the wind you see.

While we were there we had tickets to see the "Disappearing Gun". This was a huge piece of armament installed to repel the threat of the Nazi attack all those years ago, that never happened.
The tour of its placement was very interesting, educational and well narrated, although the walk to the top of the hill to gain access is a bit of a killer.

A quick shopping trip was needed to replenish our food and drink stocks, so, as we'd seen Woolworths somewhere, we decided that would do nicely. Thank you.

Sods law. A brilliant term. I think it means if you really need your sat nav to guide you to the shops it will go down in a huff. That's what happened to ours. Bleedin cheek of it. We found Woollies and we got our shopping. We even tried to find a bureau de change, in this part of the world much, much better value than the banks!

To no avail. Still there was as usual the foolproof option of using Nicolas' Oz bank card. She very thoughtfully and far sightedly set this up for us before we came down.
A very good way to protect the pennies, though I must say again NZ is almost crime free.

We eventually made it back to the campsite. Tonight we'd be cooking in the camp kitchen. Sounds like something out of MASH or that other programme about the war, but cooking along with fellow travellers is brilliant. You get to see how and what other cultures eat etc. You exchange stories and give and get advice. On top of this, you us the facilities that are included in your site fee and save on your own costs! It was here that we met a couple from Scotland that had been living in Melbourne for years. They had got their van from the same company as us. Theirs was smaller and she wanted to se what we had. She was a bit of a nosey cow but nobody is perfect. This was not to be our last encounter with this girl as we would find out tomorrow.

We sat for a while under the blanket of a star bejewelled sky and drank a couple of gins. Why, we wondered, could it not always be like this?