Jan 2009

Photos for this part of the trip begin here.

On my way south from Christchurch, I stopped in a town called Timaru for lunch. I had thought about overnighting there, but I had decided instead on a town further on called Oamaru, which was a decision I was very happy with. I decided on staying in Oamaru because there is a fairy penguin colony there, and since I never went to see them on Phillip Island near Melbourne, this was my chance. They come on shore around dusk, and there is a whole grandstand-like area set up to watch them. There were a few hundred of the little penguins and you could see them tumbling in the waves and then they came uphill to near where we were sitting. They then cautiously made a run for the area they stay in for the night, with little man-made boxes for them to shelter in. They were cute to see, but unfortunately I don't have any photos of them because flash photos weren't allowed.

I discovered that Oamaru also has a wonderful historic downtown area which I enjoyed exploring the next morning. It was also finally really sunny; the ocean was beautiful, as were the old buildings in the town.

I drove on south and stopped at a popular beach that has these large, round boulders called the Moeraki Boulders. Tons of people were there taking photos of the unique rocks. It was so nice to see the sun out, though it was quite chilly on the beach.

That afternoon I reached Dunedin, the end of my road trip. All together I drove 2034 km (1264 miles) in New Zealand. I returned my car and wandered around the town a bit. I found out about a train trip that you could take up a nearby river gorge called the Taieri. It sounded like it would be really beautiful, so I bought a ticket for a trip the next day. Fortunately it was again sunny and we started out on a 4-hour return trip that went up to one point inland and then came back down the gorge. Some people just went one way and then took a bus that connected to a popular mountain biking trail. Outside of Dunedin, it was at first flat and we travelled past farms and fields. But then we started slowly climbing and we entered the gorge, which started out with fir-covered hills that were very Oregon-like. As we got farther inland though, the hills got drier and were mostly covered with scrub and that yellow weed that grows everywhere. There were many bridges and tunnels that allowed the train to navigate the narrow, steep gorge above the river. There was a man giving occasional commentary about the landmarks we were passing and it was amazing the amount of work it took to build the railway, especially since it was done in the late 1800's using mostly manpower and only having horses for transportation. I really enjoyed the trip, it was a beautiful day for it and it was a unique view of the countryside. Also nice was that, since it was only two days before Christmas, the staff on the train came through and gave everyone a piece of Christmas cake and a drink. Eventually we reached Pukerangi, the farthest we were going to go. We were then out of the gorge and on top of the inland plains. We had a bit of a break there as the train engine was moved to the other end of the train for the trip back to Dunedin.

Earlier on in the trip, I went to the area between the carriages and took this video as we crossed over the longest bridge of the railway:

The next day, Christmas Eve, I flew to Sydney, via Auckland. Back in Australia!