We awoke to another beautiful sunny day.  The photo below was taken in the morning from the balcony of our room.

Dunedin is a beautiful city.  We began the day with breakfast at a downtown cafe.  The picture below was taken from our breakfast table.

Next door was a nice jewellery store, where Nadine found some nice locally-made pieces for her collection.  Somehow she suckered me in to buying them for her!

Just down the street was one of the tourist information centres, called i-sites, which are fantastic resources for travellers, located throughout the country.  They will make any arrangements you need with local attractions, and are a fountain of information about the local area.  We stopped in to pick up some maps and to plan our day.

After a quick trip to a local grocery store for some supplies for the coming days, we set out for the Otago Peninsula to visit Larnach Castle and to spot the yellow-eyed penguins arriving home from a day of fishing.

The photo below was taken on the drive along the shoreline of the Otago Peninsula on the way to see Larnach Castle.  It was several miles of a winding narrow road along the shoreline.

Eventually, we turned off the road along the shoreline, and took another winding road, but this one went up the side of a very large hill.  I was far too nervous on the drive up this road to take any photographs!

We eventually arrived at Larnach Castle, and below are some photos of the grounds.

We toured the castle, but no photographs were allowed inside.  Below are some photos of the fabulous view from the turret.

It was now time to head to the end of the Otago Peninsula to view the penguins coming home from fishing.  Below are a few photos of the scenic drive.

We eventually arrived for our tour of the penguins.  Basically, the yellow-eyed penguins are native to this area and can be found along the south-east coast of New Zealand.  The penguins go out to sea each morning, and return every evening, one by one, after a day of eating fish.  Next to this particular beach, a series of blinds have been set up where people can observe the penguins in the wild without scaring them away.

The penguins are endangered, with only about 4,000 remaining.  There are about 50 that live in the area of the beach we visited, down from about 90 ten years ago, due mainly to an increase in sea lion populations and other predators in the area.

Shown below is a beach where the penguins will come running ashore, trying to avoid predators like sea lions (of which we saw two waiting on the rocks next to the beach), to reach their nests in the grasses.

Below is one of the yellow-eyed penguins we saw.

Below is the inside of one of the bunkers sunk into the ground for viewing the wild penguins.  The guy on the right is a fellow Canadian we chatted with for a while.  He actually works at the Snap Lake diamond mine in the Northwest Territories, which you may be familiar with if you’ve watched the television series Ice Road Truckers.

Walking along one of the tunnels between the viewing blinds.

After about 90 minutes watching penguins, it was getting dark and time to return to Dunedin before it gets too dark to safely navigate the road along the shoreline.  It would be about a 45 minute drive back.

Rotorua is the thermal centre of New Zealand.  The city smells of sulphur, and there are many places where steam steadily pours out of the ground and hot pools bubble continuously.

Below is a photo we took while driving through the city.  The steam you see is typical of many parts of the area.

In the morning, we drove to a large thermal park south of the city so we could see many of the unique features of this area.

Shown below is the Lady Knox geyser.  I also shot about a minute of HD video of the geyser eruption, however, due to the file size (over 300 MB), I didn’t try to post the videos to the blog yet.

Below are some other photos taken inside the park.

Did they really need this sign?  Does that mean the rest of the places in this park are fit for walking right through?

The photo below does not adequately show the true colour of the blue lake in the distance.  It was a bright turquoise blue.

Another sign pointing out the obvious.  When I see steam pouring out of the earth, I can assume the ground might be a little unstable.

Again, the colour balance in the photo does not do justice to the image.  This pool, named the Devil’s Bath, was a bright, neon green colour.

This park was a very unique place, and the geothermal activity made it seem like we were on another planet.  It took about 3 hours to see the geyser and then explore the park.  The smell can be overwhelming at times, but if you’re ever in New Zealand, I recommend a visit to the Wai-o-Tapu Thermal park.

Once finished at the thermal park, we had to jump in the rental car and head straight for the Rotorua regional airport to catch our flight to the South Island.

It was a small but very nice airport, with a pretty view of the lake behind it.  No large crowds.  The airport didn’t even have an ATM, so I had to wait until landing in Christchurch to get some more cash.  Easy check-in for the flights.  Not even any airport security screening to deal with.  Just drop off the rental car, check the bags, and get on the plane.  They didn’t even ask for identification when we checked-in or when we boarded the airplane.

Below is our plane, an ATR-72, as we walked out to board it.

Our flight would take us to Christchurch, the largest city on the South Island of New Zealand, where we would connect with another flight to finish the trip to Dunedin.  Once in Dunedin, our plan is to pick up another rental car and spend the rest of out time in New Zealand working our way around the South Island.

While I found Air New Zealand’s international service to be quite excellent, the same can’t be said for their local service.  While the flights were on time and inexpensive, the airplanes were rather old, all seats were locked in the upright position, and it was obvious that the interior of the planes had not been cleaned in a very long time.  Fortunately, we were not in the aircraft for very long.

Our motel in Dunedin is excellent.  Right in the centre of town, the place is very modern and well-equipped.  The in-room laundry facilities in the kitchenette are a most welcome feature on a long trip, and the whirlpool bath is nice after a cramped airplane ride.

Tomorrow, we begin the part of the trip that I have been looking forward to the most… the South Island!

Written by: Nadine

We have a busy schedule planned for today.  After some early morning shopping and breakfast in Auckland, we picked up our rental car for the drive to Rotorua.  The drive would take about 3.5 hours, and would be our first experience with a right-hand drive vehicle.

Below are a few photos of the drive.

The landscapes we drove through include rolling hills, lots of trees, lots of cows and a few sheep.  We are hoping to see more sheep in the South Island.  We took many of the photos through the car windows, so it does not do justice to how beautiful this place is.

We stopped here for a quick break.  The stream was cold.  I dipped my feet in, and while it was cold and slimy, it was still fun.  Not as cold as Georgian Bay, but cold enough.  Dave did not go in the water.

Mom wanted to know what kind of car we got; it’s a Ford Territory (shown below).  It was conveniently large for our luggage and very comfortable.  We ordered the SUV so we could have a comfortable trip, and also so we could get better views of the many sights we would pass along the way.

We got the hang of driving here pretty quickly.  Dave did most of the driving in Auckland because I was too chicken to try to drive in the city or the motorway.  But once on the open road, I took over and it is not too bad.  We had an argument over me missing the roundabout turn and Dave making sound effects because I got caught off guard with all the roundabouts here.  But I am a pro now. 

A good part of the drive from Auckland to Rotorua had a canopy of trees over the road. 

The speed limit was 100 km/h.  The roads were twisty and at times very narrow.  But there were a lot of viewpoints to stop and check out the surroundings.  This place is really a beautiful country.  And, by the way, the people are also amazingly convivial.

I mean it.  I can drive the other side now! 

Getting into Rotorua.  We are starting to smell the sulphur in the air, but our hotel is in a sulphur fume free zone so it does not smell too much.

We attended one of the cultural experience shows put on by the local Maori.  It was basically a feast (hangi) cooked the old fashion way with … I don’t really remember but it was cool!

Below the ‘chief’ unveiled the food, cooked in a big pit in the ground, which consisted of chicken, lamb, stuffing, potatoes and sweet potatoes.

The food was OK, but I expected more spice.  The lamb was very tender and the sweet potatoes had a really nice smoke flavour… But I was underwhelmed… I expected something different.  They catered too much to the tourist’s taste I think.

A simulation of the Maori warriors coming down the river.  The photos does not really do the entire experience justice because it was dark, the sounds of the forest were spooky and everyone seemed very quiet.  It was well done, but a little too much waiting around, especially in the cold night temperatures.

We got to see the glow-worms and kiwis.  Dave and I actually saw 2 kiwis.  What really surprised Dave was how large kiwis really are.  I did not have any expectations so …. I thought they were weird and very interesting.

Unfortunately, because our tour through the nature park was at night, which was a fabulous way to see the park, we could not get any good photos.