Day 10 - Dunedin

Reluctantly we left our lovely accommodation at Lake Tekapo and headed towards Dunedin.

The view of the lake was still pretty incredible this morning, but the sun was very bright so it's lucky we got all our photos yesterday. We did manage to capture the size of the hotel resort though.




The weather was again very kind to us today and the outlook for tomorrow in Dunedin is 18 and fine. We did however come across some really weird fog along our drive today. We were at about 50-100m visibility and it lasted for about 20kms. It was quite strange to drive through while in the middle of nowhere.

Our first stop for the day was for lunch. We gave Couplands Bakery another try. Guy was happy with the sausage roll and my pasty was okay. Still yet to find a bakery that will do a good donut though!!!

There were only a couple of sights to stop off for along the way to Dunedin, the first being the Moereki Boulders. These are natural formations along the Moereki beach. They are best viewed at low tide, and I think we arrived at high tide! Despite that, they were much more impressive than I could have imagined. Guy managed to get a couple of really nice photos - you'll possibly be seeing one on a canvas once we get home.




After a walk on the beach, we took in the view over a coffee and tea before heading onward.

I had found a place that does horse riding along Deborah Bay and whilst Guy wasn't interested in horse riding (and I was a bit tired for it too), we decided to do a drive past so I could see this bay that bears my name and decide if it was worthy. Well...what a saga. The GPS (yes, another GPS story) tried to take us down a dirt road. We ignored that and stuck to a bitumen road (not a main highway) that wound in and around the hillside. We took that for about 1/2 hour before turning on to a dodgier road which hardly even fitted 2 cars and yet we met quite a few going in the opposite direction. When we made it down to the water there was no bloody sign for Deborah Bay. In fact we couldn't find it at all!!! It must be the smallest bay on earth.

After that scenic and frustrating detour, we continued along the coast to Dunedin. This part of the trip was quite simple, until we got into the city. Silly me had programmed the address of Cable Court Motel with the name of Quest Apartments - we were actually staying at Quest. So when we supposedly arrived at our destination, there were some groans. We knew our accommodation was across from Cadbury World and I knew that address so the crisis was averted. The Quest Apartments isn't really the best quality but the location is great - did I mention it's across from Cadbury World!!! We have a studio style room which is neat and tidy and the bathroom is quite nice. Funnily enough the view out of our window includes the Larnach Castle (in the very distance). Hardly much of a castle according to Guy, but still looks impressive to me.

We are within walking distance to nearly everything that we need in this location. We are half way between 2 supermarkets, across from Cadbury and short drive to Speights Brewery. We walked around the Octagon which is basically the centre of town, and then down to the beautiful NZ Railway building. The architecture here is so beautiful, so there are a lot of photos. On our way back past the factory we could smell Turkish Delight - not my favourite but still smells good.











We've sussed out a place for dinner - the Wig 'n' Pen. It was the only place we found that had a good old fashioned schnitty, which we are both craving.

The temperature is definitely starting to lower and we are requiring more layers, scarves and gloves, but we have been so lucky with the weather. The north island is full of rain at the moment and we had perfect sunshine, so I'm anticipating the horrible weather we must be getting when we move to the east coast - just in time to tamper with our Milford Sound and Fox Helihike tours!

(and I forgot to mention the genuine lambs wool nipple warmers that were available in Christchurch - Guy will be toasty warm from now on :-))