Day 15 - Dunedin

We checked out and headed to Dunedin, another coastal town that is famous for their Edwardian style architecture, Cadbury Chocolate, and Yellow-Eyed Penguins.  But first we started the day with a flat white and a savory biscuit.  Yum. I appreciate the New Zealanders love of baked goods.

We stopped at St. Clair beach and ate lunch in our car since it was sprinkling.  We watched the surfers while this guy watched us.

We did a a quick hike down to Tunnel Beach.

  Kind of off the beaten path.  You hike downhill to this great view of an impressive land bridge.  

Then you look to your left and see a tunnel in the side of the hill.  The beach has very dramatic cliffs in this area and is not very accessible so Mr.  Cargill, one of the early settlers, made this tunnel so his daughters could play on the beach.  You walk down the stone stairs too...

...this beach where there is another cave...

and these impressive jagged cliffs surrounding you.  You feel very small.  There was no body else here so it also felt very remote.

After the hike, we checked out the city.  They have Scottish roots here and very cool architecture.

This is the train station.  

We decided to have an alfresco dinner at a place called Ratbag(not an appealing name but good food).  They were famous for their meter pizzas.  The restaurant was right off the Octagon which is the center of town and felt a bit like Pioneer Square.  It felt funny eating outside at Christmas time when we are used to trying to stay warm and dry at this time of year.

After dinner we grabbed some warmer clothes and headed out to Sandfly Beach to try to catch some Yellow-eyed Penguins (YEP) coming assure to feed their babies.  YEP are native to NZ and endangered with a population of only about 4000 currently.  There was a volunteer stationed at the beach to instruct us where best to spot them.  We had to keep low and not move because if they see you they wont come assure which they need to do in order to feed their babies.  We got to see 2 float onto the beach and then they hiked about 50 yards up some boulders to their nests.  So fascinating to watch these guys in their natural habitat.  No pictures because it was dark and they were a bit far off but we did get some the following day when we went to a preserve for the YEP.