Wanaka to Dunedin

July 23, 2009

We got up this morning and got out of Wanaka pretty quickly. We headed towards Dunedin, where Raven’s youngest daughter lives and saw the sun coming up over the mountains. It was stunningly beautiful, as usual, but one of those moments that can’t be captured by a camera. We tried too, twice. The lighting wasn’t right so it’ll just have to be in our memories. We decided that we needed to stop to get gas as we had 4 bars left on the tank.

We pulled into a gas station in Cromwell and while Raven was filling up I decided to pull out the Lonely Planet. I read that the residents of Cromwell have a legendary chip on their shoulders because the government built a dam and flooded the original town. Sure enough, when we asked for directions, townspeople would say “When they flooded the town…” Yep, they’re not over it and can you blame them? I continued to read about the town and Lonely Planet said that it’s a town with really good food. We looked at the recommendations and chose a place called the Seed & Grain Cafe. We asked about it and a guy told us it was in “Old Cromwell Town, where they flooded the town.” Did I mention a chip? We found Old Cromwell Town, which is a bunch of old buildings that they’d moved uphill right before they flooded the town. We found the Seed & Grain Cafe and were a few minutes early but she let us in and we ordered breakfast and a moccacino (aka a mocha). They had a breakfast called a bacon and egg buttie. Raven ordered it and it was two pieces of white bread, butter, a bunch of bacon and a fried egg. Hmm, not sure what a buttie is. A said that her boyfriend’s mom made chip butties for her family… that means white bread, butter and fries inside it. LOL! The moccacinos were fantastically yummy. I’m glad we stopped but I don’t think Cromwell was the foodie paradise described in the book.

We continued on our way to Dunedin. After breakfast we stopped at a sign that advertised fresh cider in a shop. We got some cider and then headed next door to the distillery. I’d been to one of the distilleries when I was here last and I soooo loved it so we definitely had to stop again. It was 10 am but we were sampling all sorts of delicious schnapps and I’m bringing home a bottle of a lemon schnapps that is divine. Raven bought some other lovely types including their famous butterscotch schnapps, which we’re sampling as I write this.

We then headed to Dunedin and stopped at the bookstore because I had heard that NZ has a very progressive approach to math and I wanted to get some books for my classroom. The university bookstore wasn’t the right place though. They directed us to the teaching college and we thought it would be a quick walk but took forever. We finally got there and I did indeed find some books I can use in my classroom. Yes, I am a nerd. While there, A came to meet us. We walked hella far back to the car and went out to lunch at a Korean restaurant. A pointed out that if we’d like to see the penguins now would be a good time to leave. A spent her summer working with the yellow-eyed penguins, which she says are the second rarest penguins in the world (some people say the rarest but they’re not from the Galapagos). The penguins nest in the evenings on the beaches of the Otago Peninsula and it’s not a far drive from Dunedin. Raven and I really wanted to see them (OMG, PENGUINS!!!) so we finished up lunch and drove out to the peninsula.

We got to Sand Fly Bay in the late afternoon and started out on the trail. A had warned about a giant sand dune on the way down and she wasn’t kidding. This thing was huge and steep, which was incredibly fun to run down. We were laughing as we stepped into the deep sand and commented that it might not be as fun on the way back. We then headed to the beach, Raven and I armed with our cameras taking pictures of the surf. As we were walking towards the water, Raven and A spotted a sea lion frolicking on the edge of the water. We watched it, taking pictures and walking along the beach when suddenly, it spotted us and started charging. Uh oh. We quickly turned around and started walking back so we could avoid it. Raven and I followed A as she walked towards the water, which worked because the thing lay down in the sand instead. We continued on, noting that the tide was way in and keeping our eyes open for penguins as we walked. There was one point where I noticed that A hopped up onto a sand ledge as the waves came in. I didn’t follow suit and seconds later a big wave tried to drench my feet. I did this sort of hopping dance trying to stay dry (and succeeded, thank you very much) while A cracked up. We finally made it up to the trail where the hide was situated, high up on a hill.

We got into the hide and waited for dusk, the time when the penguins come in to nest for the evening. There were sea lions on the beach and we would see them moving and think it might be a penguin. Nope. Raven and I noticed a sea lion playing in the waves. It was moving so that every time a wave would come, he would ride it and it looked like he was surfing. We were admiring how much fun he was having when all of a sudden he darted in and out above the waves. In front of him was … a penguin. The penguin was darted in and out of the waves, racing for its life, the sea lion in hot pursuit. :( All of a sudden, they both disappeared under the water. Poor penguin. We waited quite a while longer for other penguins to come to shore as A said there are 4 nesting pairs right at that point of the beach. No penguins were coming and it was getting darker and darker. Suddenly, A found a penguin! It was already out of the water and a couple of meters from the bottom of the hill. It kept looking out to sea and we were wondering if it was waiting for the penguin that was being chased by the sea lion. Finally, it gave up and started to hop up the hill. This was not some little hill, this was a serious mountainy hill and apparently they hop up this hill every evening. He looked back again at the water and while he waited, we decided that we needed to get back to the car so we left and started walking in the near darkness. The tide luckily had gone out a little so it was easier to walk along the beach. The sea lions were gone too as we walked along. We spotted a set of penguin tracks from the sea up to the beach so there was at least one more penguin who made it back safely. By the time we made it to the sand dune again, it was really hard to see. We huffed it up the hill and by the time we made it to the top we had taken off our heavy coats and I was tempted to wear only a t-shirt. That was definitely much harder to go up than it was to go down. We got back to the car, drove back to Dunedin and checked into our motel. We then went out for Indian food at A’s favorite Indian restaurant and now we’re back at her apartment with schnapps and our laptops.