TUESDAY, 3 MAY 2011 RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY.... LOTS OF BIG ROCKS

It was very overcast when we woke up this morning. The drive out to the Otago Peninsula showed some more beautiful scenery--along the coast going out and up in the hills coming back. The road was very narrow with no pullouts to stop for pictures. At the end sat a lighthouse and a place telling about the resident albatrosses. For $25 each we could have gone out to the nesting area, but since we got up close and personal with the osses in the Galapagos Islands so we decided to pass.

Shortly after we left Dunedin the it started to rain.

One fascinating place to stop on the east coast of the Southern Island is Moeraki where you can see some large prehistoric boulders. They were created like a pearl--a piece of fossil sits in the center and the boulder formed around it.

The first stop was Shag Point-left is the Mermaid Pool.










It was half tide when we arrived at Moeraki Beach, so the water was coming in around the boulders.

The cracks in the boulders were fascinating

Some had even cracked open. They looked like giant geodes.

Being the ex Floridian girl that I am I took my shoes and socks off and waded into the frigid waters.

Jim just dodged the waves as he took pictures.

















There isn't alot to see between Moeraki and Christchurch, so we thought we would push through all the way to Christchurch. However, as we drove through Oamaru it looked like a nice little town, driving in the rain was getting old, so we stopped. They have yellow-eyed penguins which were free to see, and blue penguins which cost $25 each to see. We decided to go out and see the yellow-eyed ones. There is an observation deck about 100 feet above the beach.

When we arrived we saw the "sentinal" standing watch about 20 feet from the deck--how he got up that high from the beach is unbelievable. 

One pair obliged us by coming in on the waves, hopping up onto the beach, and waddling into the bushes where their nest is. Occasionally you could see them hopping out of the bushes as they worked their way up the hill.







Dinner at a Japanese restaurant ended another nice day. Tomorrow we head to Christchurch, and weather will decide if we stop anywhere along the way.