We took another driving day to get from Invercargill to Dunedin, pulling ahead of a storm that was advancing from the south, exploring until the rain caught up, and then racing north away from it again. Most of the stuff we saw were objectively magnificent, but for some reason none of the sights really stand out in my memory too strongly. A symptom of traveling through a ridiculously picturesque country for weeks I guess, or an illustration of how the weather affects one’s mood… One of the lighthouses made quite a nice stop though, and the trio of waterfall stops weren’t half bad.

In the late afternoon we stopped at Nugget Point to try to see some penguins coming ashore to nest after a long day’s fishing. The Department of Conservation has built a blind near the beach for such observation, and we stood in there for over an hour while the rain poured down outside. Nothing came out of the water that evening though, and we returned to the van damp and chilled to the bone. Thankfully our new van had working heat, something the buggered one lacked.

Finding a campsite was again difficult that night and we eventually settled on a rest stop that unfortunately, we thought, was right next to a driveway. We tried pretty hard throughout the trip to avoid camping near locals or where we might be in the way, trying to make sure that living out of a car remains an acceptable way to see New Zealand. I mean, what would you think if someone was camping at the foot of your driveway? Well, to the guy whose driveway we slept by that night, the answer was to come out and offer us the warmth of his house if it got too cold in the van overnight. “Just bang on the door and a hot pot of coffee or soup will be ready in no time.” That sentence really seems to sum up the attitudes of Kiwis. I wonder if it has anything to do with their custom of the Overseas Experience (OE) year. Virtually every single Kiwi takes what is also commonly called the “fuck off” year when they graduate high school - they pretty much are told to get out of New Zealand and not come back for 8-12 months. Kiwis are incredibly proud of this tradition, and it’s almost unheard of not to take such a trip. This probably has a lot to do with why I’ve met so many Kiwis in my travels (almost all on OE year trips). It also probably has something to do with the openmindedness of the culture, and with the generosity of the people. Everyone who offered us a hand probably hopes that their kids are treated the same way in wherever they are.

Back to the trip. We survived the night just fine, and headed into downtown Dunedin. Our first stop ended up being the best farmers market I’ve ever been to. The vibe was just so friendly and local, the food was great (and how many farmers markets are there where you can get a wicked latte?), and the prices were great. We loaded up produce to cook a feast for dinner and then set out to explore the town. The rest of Dunedin didn’t hold any huge surprises, but the whole city seemed very alive and happening. After Wanaka, this is where I’d live in NZ if I were to relocate.

We left Dunedin before noon and headed up to the nearby Otago Peninsula. We checked out a couple beaches, The Chasm, and Sandfly Bay. The Chasm is just what the name implies – a huge crack that you can stand on top of and peer hundreds of meters down a vertical rock wall to the ocean below. Impressive for sure, but another one of those things that was just so mammoth it was really difficult to grasp the scale. I preferred Sandfly Bay, where we walked a couple kilometers along the beach to another DOC penguin blind.

Fur seals and sea lions are said to be quite common at Sandfly Bay, and we saw plenty. A group of four claiming the whole beach initially captured our attention, and we had to do some careful tiptoeing around them to continue our walk. This was when we realized just how common seals are at Sandfly Bay. Anything that looked like a rock from a distance ended up being a seal, and several more came ashore for the night as we walked past. It’s pretty hilarious watching seals shift from their incredibly graceful selves in the water to lumbering piles of fat on land.

Immediately upon reaching the penguin blind Ashley spotted a meter long black blur in the surf, and a few moments later a yellow eyed penguin came crawling out onto the sand. Again, it was hilarious watching such a graceful animal at sea become so incompetent at moving around. Slow, measured hops slowly brought the penguin across the rocky shore, and when it had had enough it stopped to preen. It continued its preening for at least two hours, after which we left. In this time though we watched another penguin come ashore, and spotted a third already nested on shore. It was awesome to see penguins in the wild, and it really felt rewarding to have seen them without shelling out big bucks on a tour.

We cooked a mighty farmers market feast that night, and slept at my favourite of our NZ campsites. Away from the highway, shielded by trees, and metres from the river, I really didn’t want to leave in the morning. Oh, and the stars that night were sublime.