Activity Summary
Friday 20th January - Day 141
Drive to Oamaru via Omarama
Clay cliffs
Blue penguin colony (fail)
Yellow eyed penguin colony (fail)
Saturday 21st January - Day 142
Drive to Dunedin
Moeraki Boulders Beach
Explore Dunedin
Sunday 22nd January - Day 143
Otago peninsula
Albatross colony (fail) - many a seagull however & some fur seals
Sam Brunt & Rachel drinks at Emerson’s
Summary
Omarama
We did have a quick stop over to fuel here but there really was absolutely nothing of note.
Oamaru
Pretty decent for the penguin lover, having both blue and yellow eyed. However it was a bit expensive for the blue experience and binoculars are really needed for the yellow eyed colony. So naturally we saw nothing and therefore didn’t rate Oamaru overly highly.
Dunedin
Not a bad city at all. Has everything you would want plus access to the more adventurous activities (so we were told). However it was a bit bleak looking and not our favourite to walk around / vibe in. Probably didn’t help that we were so tired and didn’t give it much of a chance.
Accommodation
Oamaru - Top10
Number of nights - 1
Price per night per person - £21
In true Top10 town fashion, the people that stayed here were pretty trashy so it wasn’t the most pleasant. Very basic but we had a cabin and therefore in our eyes it could have passed for a 5 star hotel as the first break from continued tent use for a while.
However it was very expensive for what it was; cabin, bit of a rubbish kitchen and bathrooms.
Dunedin - On Top Backpackers
Number of nights - 2
Price per night per person - £23
Pretty good hostel actually. We had a private room that was next door to a tiny hall toilet which was absolutely perfect as it meant we didn't need to walk a long way to the bathrooms. Basically like an ensuite.
Our opinion may have been different if we were in a dorm, certainly because we didn’t need to leave the room to relax in more comfortable settings in the kitchen / living room which wasn’t remotely comfortable at all. Paying the extra for the privacy was well worth it for the 2 days.
Diary
So ended our 3 days of pure joy in Mt Cook and it was time to depart down the last parts of the East coast. As we were moving away from the mountain ranges and had such a wicked time it was going to be a tough act to follow.
We decided to have a night in Oamaru as a stop over on our way to Dunedin because the drive from Mt Cook was fairly long and there was (at the time of researching) potential to see some penguins as the main thing to do.
On the way we drove through Omarama to refuel, which added very little to our New Zealand experience. Even the fuel guy asked Luke why we were going to Oamaru as apparently there’s nothing there. When he replied for the penguins, he then proceeded to tell him how he once caught a penguin when drunk on the beach and simply ended the story with ‘they stink’. Bit of a weird one.
In the Omarama area is a tourist attraction called the clay cliffs so we decided to have a quick stop over along with some classic half assed lunch from the boot of the car. True to their name, they were tall jagged clay cliffs. We were however quite tired and the walk uphill to the foot of the cliffs, while very short, was too long for us. So we had a couple of half assed photos and descended back to the car. Besides, the Putangirua Pinnacles in the North Island were so much better. May have also forgotten to hit up the donation box. Our bad.
Once in Oamaru we checked in and more or less slumped out for a while, only rising because we were seriously hungry. We could not be bothered cooking at all and had resigned to getting mcds much much earlier in the day. So worth it.
We felt like we had to at least see some of Oamaru so we drove over to the little blue penguin colony only to find out they returned from the sea near sunset (around 9pm) and we were there at about 6pm. It also cost a good $50 for the experience which while cool, Nicola had already done something similar and there was no way Luke was making it back out for 9pm. So we cut our losses here and tried our luck at the yellow eyed penguin colony.
This colony & the beach had a viewing platform that was so far away there was very little chance of us seeing anything without binoculars. Luke got a picture which looks like a penguin but it could well have been a shag. Either way, we wouldn’t be able to see anything and they wouldn’t return till hours later.
We were almost happy this was the case however as it meant we could return back to the cabin and do absolutely nothing all evening. Nicola got a nice double bed to herself while Luke of course had the bunk bed although had the pleasure of sleeping on the bottom bunk for a change. So un-used to this set up he smashed his head on the top bunk a few times in the middle of the night.
Checking out is a breeze when you don’t have to pack away a tent, hope for dry weather and get rid of any potential condensation. Safe to say we won’t take this for granted when we do carry on our journeys past NZ…
On the way to Dunedin we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders Beach which has a load of what looks like submerged perfectly round boulders that have escaped and come from the cliffs. Apparently they are a natural phenomenon and not a hoax. Pretty cool.
It wasn’t too long to Dunedin so once we found some free parking next to the hostel (thank you very much nice lady who stopped us from paying at a pay and display one down the road) we had a short walk around the Dunedin CBD / shopping area to kill some time. Not an overly attractive city, Luke thinks it reminds him of Halesowen (town near Brum) and it didn’t have much of a vibe. We were very much told otherwise by some friends the next day who were living here.
Check in was a bit confusing as we couldn’t find the reception until a young teen opened the door through to the bar and then processed everything. Very trusting of parents with that much booze and responsibility for the business.
We were very happy with our digs at the hostel. Our private room had two single beds (wonderful), the room was massive and we were able to relax and chill in complete comfort in a normal bed. We very reluctantly left this room throughout our stay here. Nicola pretty much crashed out within seconds and Luke spent the afternoon researching the rest of our South Island trip.
We left the room to cook a very basic dinner before returning right back to our comfy spots for the evening.
As much as we didn’t want to, we decided it was best to get up and see some of Dunedin so we drove over to the Otago peninsula.
It was a nice sunny morning and it was lovely to see loads of people out on their bikes cycling up and down the peninsula in the bike lanes. NZ really has their ting figured out. Some nice sand spits in the sea as well.
We drove to the albatross colony and sanctuary centre which was the farthest corner of the peninsula. We had a short walk around the coast, which we hadn’t seen much of at all of late, where we got to appreciate the hundreds of seagulls chilling and not giving a monkeys about the cars & humans knocking around. There were a couple of fur seals on the beach as well but sadly we continued our wildlife baron spell and didn’t see an albatross. We, again, weren’t willing to pay a lot of money for the experience.
We had a short walk around the albatross information / history boards in the building before deciding to go grab a coffee & some lunch. However when we stopped in Portobello and parked up, our stingy senses overtook us and we ran away to countdown.
We were back at the hostel in the afternoon and spent the time continuing with research and booking activities, mainly in the Fiordlands area, before making ourselves presentable and going to Emerson’s brewery/bar to meet Luke’s old uni mate Sam Brunt and his girlfriend Rachel .
We had a lovely evening and fair play to the both of them for being sociable off the back of a stag do they organised and were both on the night before. A table of older guests were doing a beer tasting but apparently a ton of them didn't like it and gave us their platters. Some were taken with pleasure but they were a bit warm. Freebies though innit.
Rachel was an absolute legend and sorted us out with accommodation in Invercargill for the night we were stopping over with her parents. We were and would be very very grateful for this.
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