Dunedin and Cromwell

We were only in Dunedin overnight but it was plenty of time to have a look around the city sights. The morning we set off for Central Otago we went back to the Railway station to look at the architecture this time. It's a beautiful building both inside & out.

This time we literally did have the place to ourselves.

The interior of the station is as interesting as the exterior with tiles everywhere & some beautiful stained glass windows.

Many of the buildings in the CBD are of a similar style to the railway station. The dark local stone mixed with the whitestone from Oamaru has created some striking looking buildings.

 We then set off for Cromwell in the fruit growing area of central Otago. We had to track south before heading inland. It was the third time we'd covered that 50km stretch of road since the initial journey to The Catlins. We tracked through the hills for an hour as the brilliant coastal green we'd become accustomed to gradually faded. We found ourselves in the dry highlands that have ideal conditions for fruit growing. By the time we arrived in Cromwell, the skies were grey and the wind was howling.

Cromwell was always only going to be an overnight stop because our first preference, Wanaka is a madhouse over the Christmas/New Year period and finding accommodation is near impossible. As it turned out, the Cromwell holiday house we had for the night was luxurious and comfortable for us to wait out the poor weather for the afternoon and evening.

We did visit the Old Cromwell Town historic precinct. The buildings were moved when Cromwell was flooded by the dam.

After some troubles with getting hot water in The Catlins and some issues with the hotel in Dunedin, it was nice to have a nice place with nice comfortable beds, a nice warm shower (with water pressure) and even a bath. We were able to recharge for what would be a tough following day.

Dunedin & the Otago Peninsular

We packed the cars after breakfast and made tracks for Dunedin. It was a bit sad to be leaving this wild but beautiful place.

Once in Dunedin, we stopped off at the world's steepest street, Baldwin Street. The sign says so it must be true, but I'm not buying it for a second. Those from my home patch in Brisbane will probably agree that either Camp Street or Gower Street in Toowong are way steeper than this one.

Kerri, Julie & Jeanette thought it would be a good idea to walk to the top of the street.

 

 After lunch we headed to the Dunedin railway station because Julie had a bus to catch back to Christchurch. She had places to be and people to see and sadly wouldn't be coming with us or the rest of the adventure.

 

When we arrived, we had the place more or less to ourselves.

Soon after Harry's excitement escalated. Initially it was just a lone diesel idling at the station.

Then it was a freight s train being shunted past the us.

Before we knew it the station was inundated with people. Soon after, the Taieri Gorge tourist train arrived.

Then the Taieri Gorge Motor Rail appeared from the other direction. Harry didn't know which way to look or what to say.

Harry and I even got a chance to talk to Kevin, the train driver. The look on his face below shows his excitement and happiness. Harry talked about the trains at Dunedin railway station for a long time to come.

 

We said our final good-byes to Julie and went to the hotel to check in. We decided to drive out to the Otago Peninsular. It was long enough for Harry to get in a a recharge sleep and by the time we arrived he was ready to go again.

Immediately we were confronted with the smell of the bird rookery. There were seagulls everywhere in the air and on the land along with cormorants being blown around in the howling wind.

 
We had a bit of a look at the visitor centre and decided against taking the ridiculously expensive walking tour around the rookery. It turned out to be the right choice because the albatross that we'd come to see wouldn't have been near were we would have walked anyway. From the car park, we could see the giant birds with their 3m wing spans gliding over our heads. There was a viewing platform overlooking the open ocean where the wind was howling up the cliffs giving the sea birds the free lift they were looking for.

The albatross were floating on top of the ocean, drifting in until they were close enough to the peninsular to pick up the wind assistance before taking off. They circled just above the ocean with their wings outstretched until the wind quite suddenly drove them up to our level before they shot past us doing mach 3 (or seemingly).

Before we know it these graceful birds were soaring far above us en-route to the Southern Ocean.

This was yet another wonderful encounter with the Otago wildlife.

The next day we'd be on the move again.