Day Two – On the Road

Our prayers for sunshine weren’t answered on Saturday morning as we were greeted with fog and cold temperatures. Our first stop was to visit New Zealand’s only castle, Larnach Castle on the Otago Peninsula. The mansion was built in 1871 by William Larnach for his wife Eliza. It is now owned by the Barker family who restored it for visitors to enjoy. Usually amazing views can be seen from the mansion, but the fog made that hard for us to enjoy. As you can see from the car park, we were the only visitors that morning! After our tour, we enjoyed a quick breakfast of scone, coffee and tea at the castle before continuing on our journey.
The next stop was a visit to the Royal Albatross Colony. The site is the only mainland breeding colony for any Albatross species found in the Southern Hemisphere. Royal Albatross are the third largest birds in the world with a wing span of over 9 feet. They can fly at speeds of 115mph. These are some serious birds! This time of year the babies are growing and if you are lucky enough, a parent might swoop in for a feeding every one to three days. Sadly, we weren’t lucky enough to see that! (The white thing in this picture is a baby Albatross)
By lunch it was time for us to say goodbye to Dunedin and start the drive to Invercargill. We decided to take the scenic route across the southern coast of New Zealand, through the Catlins. We impressed so with the spectacular and breath-taking views. Not only that but the mix of sun (it finally came out!) and rain provided us with several rainbows. A few of the stops included Nugget Point, which is home to more seals, penguins, and sea lions, Curio Bay which is fossilized remains of a forest from the Jurassic Period, Porpoise Bay where dolphins play, an Waipapa Point, the site of New Zealand’s worst shipping disaster where in 1881 a ship hit a reef and 131 lives were lost.

We arrived in Invercargill around dinner time, checked into the hotel (they left Jeremy some Happy Birthday beers in the fridge!) and then feasted on Blue Cod and Oysters at HMS King’s Restaurant which had been recommended to us by two co-workers. Then it was back to the hotel to prepare for our next adventure, a trip to Bluff, New Zealand’s southern-most town.