Dunedin to Otago Penninsula (Portobello)

Dunedin is a university town on the southeastern coast of the South Island. We arrived during orientation week so the parties and hormones were raging all around. We took a couple of days to explore and to rest our legs up. I was just over an upper respiratory infection and MJ was in the thick of it, cough!! We visited the Cadbury chocolate factory together and I went on on my own to the Speights brewery tour. Speights started in 1876 (47 years after the Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville, PA) and at the tours end they let you pour your own samples!!! Very good beer and tour, slurp!! We were pretty lazy in Dunedin and pretty much just ate and went to the movies...a few sites between.

After getting our fill of beer and chocolate we headed east to the Otago Penninsula to pursue rumors of yellow-eyed penguins. We followed the road along the waterfront of Otago Harbor to the town of Portobello and made camp. We then set out for Larnach Castle. It was quite a climb up to the spine of the penninsula but we were rewarded with amazing views.

The castle sets atop the ridge and is surrounded by amazing gardens fit for...well a castle. It was built in 1871 by William Larnach, merchant baron and politician, for his first wife Eliza. 200 workmen spent three years building the Castle shell and master European craftsmen spent a further 12 years embellishing the interior. Larnach spared no expense on his dream home, which features the finest materials from around the world. Today it is owned and managed by a private family who has worked hard to restore it to its heyday.

On the way back to camp we took a very steep dirt side road down to the Pacific side of the penninsula. At the roads end is a trail through sand dunes to Sandfly Bay where, at the end of the beach is an established hide to watch for penguins. There are only 3000 breeding yellow-eyed penguins and they are quite shy. The females leave at sunrise to hunt and go as far as 40km away. They return at dusk to bring food to their chicks guarded by their male mate. As we arrived there was one male high up on the hillside waiting for his mate to arrive. We have some pics but they won't be very worthy until we zoom in on them. Since we were on bikes we couldn't wait too long for the female to return so we had to leave a bit unsatisfied. Not to worry, more penquin stories to come. We had to climb back up the steep dirt road but then we returned by the same route along the spine only it was a great decent with twists and turns and views all the way back to camp. We were hoping to catch a ride a bit up north where the blue penguins come in to shore all at once but it seemed none of the other campers were going but still a great day!