touring along

This was the weekend of the afternoon drives.
Dunedin is situated at the end of a long, narrow harbor formed by the jutting thumb of the similarly long and narrow Otago Peninsula. This weekend we explored both sides of the harbor; on Saturday we drove out to the end of the Peninsula, and on Sunday we drove along the mainland side to the harbor entrance.
Then on Monday, which was a national holiday here as New Zealand celebrated the Queen's Birthday (which was actually in April - don't ask me), we drove further north up the coast and then west into the rural mountain landscape.
By the time we took off Monday, Kirsten remarked she felt like an old couple going out for a Sunday drive. I figured since it was actually Monday, we were all right.
Saturday was a day for animal-spotting (and the only day we paid to be tourists). At the end of Otago Peninsula is an Albatross breeding ground, the only one in the world that's not on a remote, inaccessible Sub-Antarctic Island. This is where the payment bit comes in - you can only see the nesting area on a guided tour.
We'd been here once before. On Christmas Day we drove out to the end of the Peninsula in driving raid and a cold wind, and caught a glimpse of the albatross loving life and gliding through the air. The worse the weather is, the better if you're an albatross, apparently.
This time around, we were told it was unlikely we would see any adult birds, as they no longer are feeding the chicks more than once every few days. This is because the chicks have been fed so much in their first few months of life they're now fat bastards, weighing more than their parents. They're still covered in down and haven't grown their real feathers, so they don't fly, barely move and are now on a diet.
We got lucky. As we walked into the observation shed, we saw an adult standing next to the one visible chick (which really was just a fat ball of white fluff, at least as big as the adult). It was there just a minute or two, before taking off and flying out of sight.
It wasn't the end of our wildlife viewing, however. Next to the parking lot for the albatross center is a small beach. After sunset, a number of Blue Penguins, the world's smallest penguins, came ashore. There was just one small problem: it was a dark moonless night, and it kept getting darker. We could just make out the first penguins, which were only about a foot and a half tall, but after that all you could see was the blue flash of the later arrivals' bellies. We did get to hear the penguins after we could no longer see them.
Sunday was originally going to be for finding some walks along the coast, but a bitterly cold wind started to blow, bringing with it occasional rain, so we were content to stay in the car.
Sunday night Dunedin picked up some hail with it's rain, and when we woke up there was actually a dusting of snow on the hills around the city.
Our Monday Sunday drive led us up to the Moeraki Boulders, a group of perfectly round rocks, about four feet across, lying in the sand. They are impressive on first glance, then they become just a group of big rocks on the beach. We headed back to Dunedin on a scenic route into the hills, passing a huge open pit gold mine as well as the ruins of settlements from a late 1800's gold rush in the area.
Sure, we didn't get out of the car much. But we saw quite a bit of the area, and after all, it was cold.