Dunedin and Otago

I headed north to Dunedin. I stayed in Dunedin three nights in a great new apartment.   The room I wanted they didn't have so I got upgraded.  I caught up on work and then headed out to the Otago Peninsula which is just adjacent to Dunedin around 1/2 hour.  I went all the way to the end of the peninsula to a nature preserve to see the Penguins.  They took us in 6 or 8 wheeler amphibious cars.  First destination was a spectacular panoramic view and then to the seal colony.

There were maybe 100 to 150 seals and there were lots of mothers with babies.  There is something mesmerizing about them.  They are a little like humans and little like dogs.  Next stop on the tour was a incredible picturesque beach to see the penguins.  Well actually penguin.  The brochure showed a bunch of penguins and when we got there, there was just one really far away.  They told us that penguins were very unsociable and didn't even like each other.  Any way the tour was nice despite the lack of penguins.

I then drove around another 20 minutes to Lanark Castle.  The drive was through  narrow winding roads through the hills.  Actually, most of New Zealand is winding roads through hills but this was particularly narrow and windy.  The road narrowed so much that I got out of the car and stopped a car going the other way.  I asked them if I was going the wrong way on a one way street and they told me that was just how the road was.  I also asked him what Boxer day was.  Which is what the day after Christmas is called and they told me rich people used to give the peasants boxes of food the day after Christmas in England and it became known as boxer day. 

Befittingly I arrived at a Castle.  I did have a great lunch of smoked salmon and eggs.  They are big on poached eggs in New Zealand and they have lots of salmon farms.  I walked around the castle  a bit.  It was built by a wealthily guy a long time ago and then abandoned.  It was rediscovered and bought by a family who refurbished it.