Dunedin: Otago Peninsula

We began our week-long road trip of the South Island by driving from Christchurch to Dunedin, stopping at the Moeraki Boulders along the way. Unfortunately the tide was in so some of the rocks were harder to look at and access, but this made for some fun runs to take photos before getting too wet.

Coming into Dunedin, we headed straight out onto the Otago Peninsula to look for albatross. The breeding colonies are closed off unless you pay the exorbitant fee for the tour, so we had to settle for a view of a soaring albatross overhead and lots of seagulls and some fur seals, who were snoozing on a pathway looking adorable.

seaweed looks like hair

he had rolled over by the time we walked back around!

this guy was a little suspicious of me photographing him

Then I took the Highcliff Drive on the drive back for great views on top of the peninsula. The weather was gorgeous, and the lambs were bleating -- it was a nice experience.

We walked around downtown Dunedin for a bit and checked out the big church and grounds.

Tauranga and Mount Maunganui

On our one day in Tauranga, it decided to downpour. One of my tutorial students lives near the popular beach on the north side of the city, and we had planned to meet up for breakfast and go for a walk around the scenic Mount Maunganui which is on the end of a small peninsula. We had breakfast and I again encountered the weird custom of them serving the pancakes with a big scoop of plain yogurt. I assumed it was whipped cream and made it through about half of it before realizing there was no sugar in there, just tartness. I still don't understand what the obsession with putting tart yogurt with sweet things is. They also didn't provide any syrup. Three pancakes with berry compote and a scoop of yogurt for $16. Sigh. D encountered the thing picky eaters worldwide can't stand -- when a menu lists supposedly all the ingredients, but then leaves off a bunch of them for no apparent reason. He ordered a breakfast burrito without mushrooms or tomatoes, and it still arrived with unlisted spinach and a mystery orangish sauce. Also $16. My student ordered an omelette, but I didn't pay attention to what it had on it. We were too busy talking. 

After a long while, we decided to walk around the mount despite the rain because it seemed to be letting up. There were sheep undisturbed by the rain and some pretty rocks in the water. Soon into the walk, it started downpouring. We plowed ahead anyway and ended up soaked with puddles in our shoes after about 45 minutes. We drove her home and went back to our Airbnb place to change and eat lunch before driving to Gisborne. I have no pictures from Tauranga because of the rain, but everyone kept telling us it was beautiful when sunny!

Here's a picture of Mount Maunganui on a sunny day which we did not get.