From the Ocean to the Mountains - Act 2: Dunedin & Catlins

Our trip this past weekend was dictated by the weather. Almost the entire island was supposed to be covered with a low pressure system that was due to drop over 400mm of rain in some areas. Therefore we picked the one area of the country that was supposed to be sunny to travel to, Dunedin and the Catlins.

The weather forecasters were correct and we had a glorious weekend to travel in the sun.

Here is a link to a map of the route we took for the weekend.

Starting at 7am Saturday morning, we left Christchurch for Dunedin, about 5 hours away. Along the way, we stopped at the Moeraki boulders for a break. They are a set of spherical boulders only viewable at low tide. They weren't really all that exciting but it was a good break from driving. Here is a picture of me inside a boulder.

Arriving in Dunedine we checked into our hostel and set about to wander the town, exploring the Octagon, the Pioneer Museum, and the most photographed building in New Zealand, the Dunedin train station. Mostly by obligation of tradition, we took a group photo in front of the train station.

Next, we headed out to the Otago peninsula, to search for local wildlife including albatross and yellow-eyed penguins. We didn't find any albatross, but we did find a penguin in Sandfly Bay. The bay itself was tons of fun with sand dunes to run around on and a big sand beach. It was beautiful. We were told to stay far away from the penguins because they were moulting and are easily disturbed. It was difficult to take any pictures. Here is our best effort. Conditions were made even more difficult because the penguins only come out of the water at dusk.

That evening, we stayed in Dunedin and went out for dinner and to some clubs. This was an interesting experience for me as it is not really anything I had done before. The busy times for the clubs are from 1am to 5am. We got there at midnight and it was too early to be full yet. I didn't stay for too long but some of those I was with stayed for quite a while.

The next day, J, M, and I split off from the others to travel further south into the Catlins to explore some trails there. We visited Jack's Blowhole:

Purakanui Falls:

and Matai Falls:

We also tried to visit the Cathedral Caves but they were closed because of rough seas.
M, J, and I then drove back to Dunedin to visit Tunnel Beach. Tunnel beach was built by a rich mining magnate a long while ago as a present for his daughter's 21st birthday. He cut a tunnel down through the beautiful sandstone cliffs to a sheltered beach below. The beach is only accessible at low tide and is quite delightful. We spent an hour or so there watching the waves (it was very windy) and enjoying the waning afternoon sun.

Our final touristy stop of the weekend was at Baldwin St. The steepest street in the world with a grade of 1 in 2.28 at the steepest sections. Naturally, I had to run up. It was quite exhausting. The locals hold races here called the Baldwin St. Gutbusters. It would be fun to participate.

By this point we were ready to go home so we set out north on Highway 1 hoping to arrive in Christchurch around 10:30. Unfortunately, the highway was closed due to flooding (remember the 400mm of rain that was supposed to fall in the mountains) so we had to take a detour away from the coast. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. At one point we stopped for a break on the side of the road and looked up at the sky to see the most brilliant array of stars I had seen in a long time. We were in the middle of the country and there were no lights for miles. It was spectacular.

1000 km and 18 hours of driving later, we were home. It was a good weekend.