We started our day by packing up and getting the car loaded, then drove to breakfast at a wonderful little place called The Olive Tree. Kayleigh had museli, Jen had a bacon and cheese toastie, and Mark was the traditionalist with 2 eggs with bacon, sausage, potatoes and toast. We got on the road for our long 8 hour drive back to Christchurch. We drove through Dunedin, and thought about stopping to see Tim & Ray, but then realized we were halfway around the world from them.
We stopped for a jaunt at the Moeraki Boulders. These are rather spherical boulders on the seashore that... Look like a giant boccee set. The natives believed they had spiritual significance. After attempting to play boccee and failing, we did a little shopping and got back on the road.
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| Moeraki Boulders Moeraki, New Zealand |
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| Moeraki Boulders Moeraki, New Zealand |
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| Moeraki Boulders Moeraki, New Zealand |
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| Moeraki Beach Moeraki, New Zealand |
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| Train Sign Oamaru Harbor, New Zealand |
Unfortunately penguins spend the day out in the ocean fishing and don't come home to their nest until dusk (what's that about!? So responsible...) so we tried to get a late lunch nearby. Many places in New Zealand advertise they are open morning till late, but they have a greatly reduced menu unless you're in the main meal times, so we struck out finding food.
We continued our drive and finally ended up in a small town named Timaru around 5pm. We stopped at this great little pizza joint named Zest and had a dinner of soup, salad and pasta. While we were eating, Mark researched penguin sighting locations and found that the worlds smallest penguins make their residence at the Timaru pier - who knew? After dinner, we headed out to the pier to try our hand at finding penguins, and... We found one! This was the perfect end to our time in New Zealand!
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| Little Blue Penguin Timaru, New Zealand |