I Love Lamb

We arrived on the south island on August 27, and proceeded down the east coast towards Dunedin. We did the 900 km journey over two days, arriving the next afternoon, which luckily was a Friday. Andrea was able to catch up with Branden over a few beers on their deck overlooking the Dunedin harbour with the ocean in the background. That night we went out with Branden, his wife Ana, and a group of their friends to catch some live Kiwi music. We saw Sola Rosa put on a fantastic show, and recommend any Canadians looking to sample some Kiwi music to check them out – their newest video is on YouTube, “Turn Around”.

Branden and Ana were gracious enough to let us stay in their spare bedroom for a week, to take a break from campervan life. We explored Dunedin, including the University of Otago campus, the many gorgeous old buildings in the downtown area, and Baldwin Street, the world’s steepest residential street.

After a week in Dunedin, we once again heard the call of the road. On Saturday we returned to campervan life and headed further south to the Catlins area. The Catlins are an area rich with forests, waterfalls, scenic reserves, and tons of wildlife, along the southeastern tip of the south island. We were incredibly lucky yesterday to catch a rare glimpse of a couple of yellow-eyed penguins in the wild. After two hours of waiting in the cold on a rocky beach, we were rewarded with two penguins returning from the sea to their breeding grounds. They hung out by us for almost half an hour, coming within 5 metres of where we were, allowing Craig some great photo opportunities. What also made this encounter so unique was that this was not a tourist attraction where you have to pay – it was just a beach, with us and four other people and our cameras. Seeing wild penguins so close was Andrea’s dream come true.

We are now continuing west along the southern tip, again without any destination. The caravan park we are staying at has sheep, lambs, and a goat. The owners have adopted an orphaned one-week-old lamb, who Andrea was lucky enough to be able to bottle feed tonight. This was Andrea’s second dream come true, and within 24 hours of seeing penguins!