lindreth upside down: Holiday 2011, part 3

For the next leg of our journey, we drove from Moeraki, past Dunedin City, and on to Portobello, a small village on the Otago Peninsula.

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There were a few good things to see along the way, so we made some stops. One of our goals this trip was to always stop and smell the roses. Or see the seals. Or taste the cheese. We did it all.

First stop: Shag Point. There are supposed to be yellow-eyed penguins here as well as seals, but we only saw seals. It was a lovely sunny day though, so even if we had seen nothing but the ocean, we wouldn't have minded. It was worth the stop.

sun bathing seal

Gareth chatted with this guy and learned he was out to look for 'penguins in distress'

Carrying on, we noted that there were two points of interest ahead. The Matanaka Homestead, dating from 1846, and the Evansdale Cheese Factory. We briefly debated the merits of both attractions, trying to decide which one to stop and see. But then we thought, hell, we're on holiday! Let's see both! Old buildings AND cheese - our sense of adventure knows no bounds.

Matanaka Homestead

Seriously, I do really like old buildings. These were on a beautiful patch of green grass overlooking the sea. The carpark was empty when we arrived (I know, you'd think there'd be hoards of people there...) and we had the buildings to ourselves. Well, just us and the sheep that were wandering around. It was well worth the stop.

Now on to the cheese.

Who could have guessed that this humble building would house the first cheese curds we have ever seen outside of Wisconsin!! (more about delicious cheese curds here) We happily handed over $7 for a small container and greedily inhaled them back in the car.

Driving on, our bellies full of cheese curds, we marvelled at how gorgeous Otago is. Otago is incredibly beautiful. Rolling green hills, dramatic coast lines. It's just gorgeous. If things don't work out for us in Christchurch, Otago is a close number 2 for me. (Gareth says the West Coast is number 2 in his heart).

Soon we arrived in Dunedin City... and drove right through it.

By now, we were eager to get to our campsite in Portobello. We'd see Dunedin later. The drive around the bay was stunning.

We set up camp in Portobello, a little town on the peninsula.

Really good fish & chips here

Around this time, we decided that we should see every lighthouse we came across. And why not? Lighthouses are cool. There are two lighthouses on the peninsula; the first is way up top at Taiaroa Head by an albatross colony. We went there first.

lighthouse at Taiaroa Head

Although the albatross are the main attraction here, we didn't see any. We had come at the wrong time of day. Also, they evidently really like to glide on the wind, so windy days are good viewing days, but this was a rare calm day. So no albatross. But we learned all about these huge birds at the informative visitor's centre. Well, informative to us lay people. We met this German tourist at our campsite who was a biology student with a keen interest in birds. We saw him at the visitor centre writing page after page of comments for the suggestion box because "there is so much more they could do here!" So I guess the quality of the visitor centre is only satisfactory if you know nothing about albatross.

Next, we headed east of Portobello toward Matakitaki Point to see lighthouse #2. The roads were narrow and winding, but the rural scenery was quite nice.

This is a windy place.

The unsealed roads aren't wide enough for 2 cars to pass.

We drove and drove along the winding, unsealed roads. It seemed like ages, but surely this lighthouse would be well worth the trip, right? Imagine our dismay when, very nearly there, we came to a locked gate blocking the way. "Private Road," it said. Apparently the only road to Matakitaki Point and its lighthouse is private. Huge bummer. Our map had really failed us this time. We turned around and headed back the way we'd come.

Next we decided it was time to do some walking. We drove toward Sandymount, where there are a few walking trails.

This view makes my heart sing

We walked about 20 minutes to the summit of Sandymount, and then toward Lovers Leap. But the Leap looked to be quite a ways away. Not in the mood for anything so strenuous, we turned back early and headed back to the car. It's not like we would have leaped anyway.

The next day was a really rainy, windy, horrible day. So we decided the time was right to go into the City and spend the day at a museum. We walked around Dunedin in the rain a bit, admiring its cathedral with its in-tact spire.