Dunedin, New Zealand

This oughta be brief because it’s 9:30 and we’re just finishing our lamb kabobs in our room here in Dunedin. It’s been a long day: we left Te Anau later than planned (9:00 AM) because we didn’t get to bed until Midnight last night. We drove about 250 miles today to get from Te Anau to Dunedin. Google says you can do it in about 3.5 hours (175 miles). The route we plotted calls for 5 hours (240 miles) on Google. We managed to do it in a little over 11 hours. Now you see the problem.

The first problem was snow. Not on the highways, on the mountain tops. While we’ve been doing our thing in Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound suffering from the rain, sleet and low hanging clouds that obscured any hope of seeing mountain peaks, those mountain peaks received a liberal dusting of snow. When we hit the Southern Scenic Route it was one stop after another to admire (and photograph) the views. And when we weren’t admiring the snow-capped mountains we had spectacular views of our old friend, the Tasman Sea as it crashed onto the shore. Pain in the neck; thought we’d never escape those dratted mountains.

Our original thought was to go through Invercargill, the southern most city in New Zealand. Instead we went to Bluff, an industrial town south of Invercargill. It’s home of the aluminum facility that spurred the construction of the Doubtful Sound hydro electric project we saw just two days ago. Bluff is also a manufacturing center and also has what looks to be a major seaport facility. We saw several frozen meat facilities through which frozen lamb and grain-fed beef are exported. It’s definitely not a tourist destination; it is a city that keeps its nose to the grindstone from what we could see. The main tourist attraction was a lookout point to see the coast line and crashing waves.

Oh by the way, why did we pick Bluff? Because it’s the terminus of New Zealand’s State Highway 1. Bluffonians would probably prefer to think it as the start of SH 1. But that’s our reason, pure and simple. We once went to the end of US Highway 12 for the same no-good reason.

The Southern Scenic route continues up the east coast to Dunedin. As such, it bypasses the much faster SH-1 (the quake-closed highway that, last we heard, is still impassable further north in Kaikoura). The route we took follows the coast and that meant we made several stops as we went north.

Slope Point claims to be the point furthest south in all of the South Island. Stewart Island lies south of the South Island so has claim to being the furthest south in all of New Zealand. The neat thing about Slope Point is that you reach it by walking through an honest-to-goodness, watch-where-you-step sheep pasture. It wasn’t in active use although a few stray sheep were grazing there as we passed through. But it was fun to feel what it is like to be a sheep, looking for the next tuft of grass to consume and never giving a thought to Rack of Lamb being such a popular menu item.

Speaking of sheep, we came across a mama ewe and her two lambs sauntering down the center of the 100 km/hr road. Escapees, I’m sure and we wished we could find someone to report the problem to but there were no nearby farm houses we could see.

Next we stopped at Curio Bay to see the petrified tree logs, what the Lonely Planet calls fossilized Jurassic-age trees that are visible embedded in the rocks at low tide. The tide was low enough and sure enough there they were. The sign said that they date back 160 million years ago, a time before bird and flowering plant life had evolved. In fact, what is now New Zealand was at that time part of Godwana, a super continent that included present day Australia, India, Antarctica and New Zealand. The separation occurred only 85 million years ago.

Dates like these always blow my mind. The Earth is a bit more than 4 billion years old. If you considered the time from the beginning of the Earth until today, 160 million years is like 15 days ago.The last ice age left New Zealand maybe 20,000 years ago. That’s like 4.5 minutes ago.

Curio Bay also happens to be home to the rare Yellow Eyed Penguin, not to be confused with the Crested Penguin we saw at Doubtful Sound. This is nesting season so Mom and her chicks are on the nest under the bushes along the rocky shore. Dad’s job is to fish and bring home his catch. He’s usually seen just before sunset. Sure enough, Judy spotted him waddling down the beach. You wonder how a bird like that can survive. He reminded me of an old man tottering along, each step a near disaster, requiring great forethought before he commits to making a move (just like I feel when I go for a walk). But snap, snap, we’ve got the pix and the video clip.

From there on it was nonstop to Dunedin. The GPS called for arrival at 8:24 PM; the office at our hotel closes at 9. We called, alerted the host to our situation (no problem, he said) and kept on trucking. We arrived four minutes early (I didn’t let any passing zones go to waste), checked in and hustled down the street to the Pasha Turkish restaurant. They were just closing but the nice cook whipped us the lamb kabobs and here we sit.

The interesting thing about today’s travels is that we saw country side and cities that are not part of the normal tourist trek. The farms weren’t situated on the slopes of breathtaking hills and mountains; most were fairly flat but prosperous looking. Bluff was as blue color and down-to-earth as you could imagine, but still neat and livable, just not a place you’ll find rated five star must-sees in Lonely Planet or Trip Advisor.

Tomorrow we’ll do downtown Dunedin for a few last minute souvenirs and gifts and then out on the nearby peninsula to see the castle, some more penguins and a Royal Albatross or two.