I want to start this blog by talking about the night sky. One of my favorite past times is sitting outside making a fire and viewing the beauty of the night sky. One of my favorite memories is when I was at my Babci’s on Georgian Bay and we were out on the back deck on a midsummer’s night eve. It was a clear sky and when you looked up there were literally thousands of stars shining bright and the milky way was as clear as day.
Getting on with my new adventures. The night sky here in NZ has been pretty stunning. There is a constellation that is only visible in the Southern Hemisphere. It is called The Southern Cross, or The Crux. I was able to see it on Saturday night before I made a phone call at 4am local time. It is definitely something all star lovers should see. I was also able to see the constellation Orien. It’s going to be weird seeing him for 6 continuous months. Kinda cool though.
Every night here has been pretty clear. I haven’t experienced any storms yet and overall the weather has been in our favor. A lot of people said the weather would be crappy when I was in NZ because it was switching from summer to fall and getting into earlier winter. So far they are very wrong and probably a little jealous because every day has been 20 + and the sun has been shining bright. When it has rained it has been light, lasting a maximum of a couple of hours.
On Monday we left Kaikoura and headed south to Oamaru. Oamaru is a very small artsy town. We wanted to walk around and see what we could do before sunset but it was a public holiday so everything was closed. We rested in the hostel till the sun started setting. I should mention that Oamaru is famous for their Blue Penguin colonies. You can either pay $20 to go see where the main colony is, or just head to one of the local beaches and try seeing one or two. We didn’t want to pay so we risked it. In the end we saw about 5 penguins. And we were able to get a lot closer than anyone in a large tourist group would have got. It was also really cool cause we were the only ones there. Here is the story.
Blue penguins are the smallest of all penguins. (I got excited when I read this because small animals make me happy.) At sunset they start heading back to the rocky shores to rest after a long day of deep sea fishing. So when it started to get dark we headed to the cliffs and waited for the penguins to arrive. SOOOO CUUUTTEEE!! We first saw one peering from behind the rock and checking us out. SIDENOTE: You aren’t allowed to use flash photography or a flashlight to view the penguins. At the cliffs we were at there was a pier that went out quite far and had a few street lights on it. We walked down the pier along the rocks looking for more penguins. We saw two climbing up the rocks and just relaxing under the street light. They started playing and waddling around. I was like a little school girl watching them. I want one sooo badly. Once they were comfortable being around us they ran across the pier. Their waddle was adorable to watch because they were going so fast. What made it better was when one of them tripped over his feet, stumbled, then fell. He/she quickly picked themselves up again and continued to the other side. I walked over and sat about 3 feet from them and just watched them cuddling up with each other. It was really amazing being able to sit this close to wild Blue Penguins and just watch them. Only in the southern hemisphere can you do this. They weren’t as inviting as the Fur Seal Pups but it was still amazing. I want to have one as a pet. They are incredibly small and make your heart melt.
Tuesday we headed even further south to Dunedin. On our way we stopped at the Moeraki boulders and Shag Point. The Moeraki boulders were really interesting because they are very spherical rocks that are in the middle of a random beach and no one knows where they came from or how they were formed. They vary in sizes as well. I think they were made by aliens because the inside of them looks like a brick wall. Almost perfect rectangles held together by some mortar. It’s very weird. Def. aliens.
We had lunch at Shag Point. It is known for its Yellow-Eyed Penguin and seal colonies. As mentioned before during the day the penguins are out fishing so we didn’t see any. We did get to see larger seals sunbathing on the side of the rocks. I walked pretty close and one hissed and me and started walking my way so I backed off. I got a pretty good picture though haha. After our lunch break we made our way to Dunedin. When we got there we unpacked, walked around and went to the movies. We went to The Hunger Games. It was a pretty good film, but I’m not going to critique it in my travel blog.
Dunedin is proud of having the steepest street in the world. That’s right. The steepest street. We arrived at the bottom early Wednesday morning. The street itself isn’t very long. Apparently they moved a house from the bottom to the top and it took them 5 hours to get the truck up the street. It is called “Baldwin Street”.(Interesting seeing that name pop up randomly in my life hahahaha). Walking up was killer on the legs. People were driving up it and you could hear their engines struggling to keep the car going, and one guy biked down it. All I can really say is that I walked up and down Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. 
After Baldwin Street we went to the Otago Peninsula. Again there was a Yellow-Eyed Penguin colony there and sea lions. This beach had full sized sea lions. It was intimidating. We were walking along Sandfly Beach and saw some sea lions lying in the sand. I tried lying down about 10 feet from one and as soon as I got into position for the picture he jumped up, growled and got into a defensive position. I’ve never got up so fast and run. I just wanted to lye in the sun and soak up some rays with him lol. We strolled a little further down the beach and saw two more lying. This time the one sea lion was massive. This is the full size one we saw. If I were to guess I would say he was at least 10-12ft long and very fat. I was a little nervous just walking by this one. He was pretty chill and just stayed with his lady and didn’t pay much attention to us. Thank goodness. We spent the rest of the day on the beach just relaxing and enjoying the ocean air.
The girls have left me for a week. They are heading further south to do some hikes in the mountains. I opted out of this one and said I would just relax. I don’t think it is the best idea for me to go hiking in the mountains on 3 day excursions. If I had someone with me that knew my condition better and my legs didn’t hurt from all the hiking already then I would totally be down for more day trips. Today (Thursday) I will be resting in the hostel in Dunedin. It is called Hogwartz. Tomorrow I will be heading to Queenstown and I need to meet the girls next week in Wanaka. Hopefully everything works out and I will be with them again in a week or so.
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