Christchurch to Dunedin

We were happy to leave Hamilton behind. It was hot and incredibly dry, with no rain since Christmas, and the water level in mum’s tank was getting pretty low. In Christchurch it was a bit cooler and a bit greener, but not much. We didn’t linger. After picking up the rental car, a gutless Nissan with automatic transmission, we headed south following the eastern coast of the South Island. It began to rain.

Our first night was spent in a backpackers in Timaru. Our only company was a dear old lady with a black eye and a bit of mental problem, who insisted on washing our dishes and worrying about whether we were warm enough. She was very sweet and when we left the next morning, her parting gift to us was a bunch of lavender and some cherry tomatoes.

We made a fleeting stop in architecturally-blessed Oamaru, one of the few towns in New Zealand where a sizeable number of turn-of-the-century buildings have been preserved. Further down the coast we came to Moeraki, where large near-perfect spherical boulders litter the windswept beach, many with a diameter of 2 or 3 meters. Set against a wild sea, they are a spectacular sight. Their origin is debated, but it seems they were eroded out of nearby cliffs.



Boulders at Moeraki

Near the town of Moeraki, there’s a nice peninsular where you can see seals and yellow-eyed penguins. We were lucky and saw many of both.





A seagull, a yellow-eyed penguin and a seal