Kakanui, Herbert, Moeraki, Dunedin

The Moeraki Boulders on Koekohe Beach

I love the names of towns and places in New Zealand.  So many of them are of Maori origin - we have a great time in the car figuring out the pronunciations (yes, we're easily amused!)  Once we figure out how WE would say it, we test it on our AirBnB hosts.  Their response is usually a blank stare until we spell it out for them, and then they say something like "oh, you mean ....." and the pronunciation is something completely different.  I can't figure out how to do a New Zealand accent.  And the New Zealanders all think we talk funny.  We get along just fine.  It's amazing how laughter breaks down any barriers very quickly!

This happens regularly.  Go 45.  No, go 100.  Whaaaat?

Today we travelled southward along the eastern shore through places with delicious sounding names like Kakanui, Moeraki, Waikouaiti, Karitane, Waitati among other more normal ones like Herbert and Palmerston.  Glen has a fascination with the beautiful New Zealand paua shells, and we've been told they are most easily found on the south island, so we're stopping at a lot of beaches to search for them.  In Kakanui, we stopped to ask a fellow out doing his gardening for directions to the beach.  He was a typical friendly Kiwi - got chatting with us, and then said he had some paua shells in his garage.  Off he went and came out with a handful of shells for Glen!   And then we found a few on our own when we got to the beach.

The beautiful rainbow interior of the paua shell.
Found these all by myself!

The beach at Kakanui where we found our first paua shells
out on a beach, rather than having them given to us.

Glen found quite a few more than I did!

Lots of pretty red kelp on the beaches

A little further along the road, we stopped at a beach just outside the town of Moeraki and discovered these big round boulders on the beach.  They are known as the Moeraki Boulders and are quite large. Of course the Maori have their legends around them, but if you click the link, you can see the scientific explanation.  They were fun to look at for awhile, then we carried on.

Moeraki Beach and Boulders

Seabirds

On the Otago coastline on the way to Dunedin.  A little
rockier than the usual sand stretches.

We arrived in the college town of Dunedin after a little mix-up with our beloved (NOT!) TomTom had us travelling several miles inland to an AirBnB 'with a beach view'.  Hmmmm.  We were finally able to contact our hostess and get proper directions, and eventually arrived at a wonderful spot called Ocean View, a small suburb to the south of Dunedin.

Driving through Dunedin - I believe this is the train
station - very elaborate!

A corner 'Dairy' in Dunedin.

Our hosts have converted an old elementary school into a home / business workshop / AirBnB.  One end is used to house tools and supplies for their building business, the middle part is for the family's living area and we have the old school offices, which have been converted into two bedrooms, a living area and a very large kitchen.  We have a big deck off the kitchen which looks onto the tennis court, the big grassy play area for the kids, and a mini farm of alpacas, sheep, rabbits and chickens.  The front door and entrance look out over the big beautiful beach - about a 5 minute walk from the house.  I loved the family kitchen and living room - it's a big old classroom that still has the huge chalkboard on one wall and big bulletin boards on another.  Their kids clearly have fun with chalk and chalkboard, and grocery and to-do lists take up another end of it.

The front parking lot of the 'school'.  The entrance to
the offices and our suite is just behind the red car, and the
entrance to the house is near the blue car.

View of the beach from the parking lot of the school

This is the patio area off the family living space.  They operate
a construction business and there is a big workshop at the far end.

Our patio area off the school offices.  They have a big
tennis court here for their kids to play on!

Our kitchen - the former staff room.

I think this was the principal's office!

This area is close to the big town of Dunedin, but has a distinctly small-town beach feel to it.  There is a winding road that goes through a few small communities.  The kids in the neighbourhood play on the street, and you can tell where they are all hanging out by the bicycles and scooters outside the gate of one of the homes.  Love it.

There are a lot of small cottage type homes here.  Fairly typical
of small towns in NZ

The beach near the house is a big windswept, miles-long piece of gorgeous.  The sand literally 'squeaks' when you walk on it.  One afternoon on our walk, the wind was really howling, so there were no swimmers and the beach was empty except for a couple of other walkers.  We noticed someone down at the far end walking down with a large mat and wondered why? Turns out, he also had some golf clubs and balls and the mat was to practicing driving - found that out when a golf ball landed about 10 feet from us!

The trail through the dunes to the beach

Huge beach.  We didn't have the best weather here.  It was blowing
really hard, and a wee bit chilly.  The sand was uber-fine
and squeaked under our feet!

Interesting rock on one end of the beach - it looked
like a petrified tree.  Maybe it was?

Our golfer friend . . .

New Zealand seems to like things being pretty - we often see bus stops and public washrooms painted with nice murals or pictures - so much nicer than a grey structure.

Bus shelter in Ocean View

Bus stop at Otakou

We drove out to a place called Taieri Mouth - a large river empties out to the ocean here.  It was quite entertaining to watch a fish boat come in with hundreds of gulls screaming around it.  I also was quite amused by this structure that supported a fishing rod on the beach.  Makes a lot more sense than standing there holding it.

The gulls welcoming the fish boat home!

Typical roadside 'brush'

These red hot pokers seem to be a weed here.  They look
really beautiful along the highways.

Look carefully and you'll see a fishing rod
balanced against the driftwood here.  Yes,
there is a line out to the water, but it's a bit
hard to see.

There are a LOT of old cars in this country and it seems like we run across a meet or a convoy to a meet almost daily.  Today was no exception.

Old cars meeting at Taieri Head

Cute little home / auto shop in Taieri Head on the main roadway

Our last day here, we drove through Dunedin and out along the coastline to the northeast of town through Otago, Harington Point, Otakou, Lower Portobello out to a place called Taiaroa Head, home of the Royal Albatross Centre.  There is an old lighthouse here, but more importantly, the area is home to a colony of northern royal albatrosses as well as blue penguins and yellow-eyed penguins.  It's quite a wild spot, and the cliffs where the albatrosses and penguins make their homes are difficult to access, making it a safe breeding ground.  You can take a guided tour, but we opted not to do that.  We did see this stuffed albatross though.

Looking back towards Dunedin from the peninsula

Taiaroa Head - it's a long way down to the water.
The albatrosses and penguins make their homes
on the cliffside.  See the huge kelp swirling
around at the base of the rocks.

I like these little gulls with the polka dot tails

This was the only albatross we actually saw.  He's missing a wing.

Didn't see any penguins here, and I wasn't prepared
to drive that crazy road in the dark so I could see them
in the evening.

Saw this beautiful succulent again - gorgeous plant!

From there, we meandered along some back roads and eventually found a lovely beach at Cape Saunders.  At the Royal Albatross Centre, there had been a sign to tell us it was moulting season for penguins in February and March and they do not go out in the water during this time.  So I decided to check some of the rocky shore to see if I could find any hiding . . . and I did!  I found this little blue penguin in a little hidey-hole.  He didn't want to come out, so the picture is a bit blurry.  This was also a sea lion beach - they camouflage themselves very nicely in the huge kelp deposits on the beach.  I almost stepped on one without realizing it was there!

This is the hole the penguin was hiding in

He didn't want to come out - so it's a bit hard to see that he is blue!

I felt bad - we probably scared the poor thing.

These guys are everywhere.  Love their orange beaks.  They
strut around, but are a bit camera-shy.  Hard to sneak
up on them.

Look carefully.  That's not a rock!  It's a sea lion.  They were
scattered all over the beach, camouflaged like this.  I almost
stepped on this one.

Glen in search of paua shells.

This is seriously large kelp.  It felt like heavy old shoe leather.  I put
my foot in the shot to get an idea of the scale. And I have big feet!

The beach at Cape Saunders.  Typically empty of people.
A couple of surfers were heading in as we left.

Leaving Cape Saunders - a big bay of sand along
the roadside - tide's out.

Last stop was Sandymount at Pukehiki - we were going to hike down there, but it was about 45 minutes down and a lot longer coming back up so we decided to take a picture and head back to school!

These roads - this one looks like we're headed
straight into the drink!  There's a sheep-sorting
pen at the side of the road - a common sight.

To get to the beach at Sandymount, you need to walk through
a sheep pasture.  Careful where you step.

Yes, the dark spots are what you think they are.
It's a bit of a minefield

The beach at Sandymount.  Too far down - we've had enough
walking and hiking for one day.  Makes a beautiful
picture though.