A windy, but dry start to the day and a little warmer than yesterday. Todays destination is Oamaru about 150Kms North. The scenery has now changed to rolling countryside with the coast on the right side.
First stop along the way was on the cliff tops to see if there were any seals, or penguins hanging around. There were seals, but no penguins! Looking down from the cliffs we saw a few seals on the rocks and playing in the water.
Fur Seal
Next it was on to the boulders of Moeraki. These are large spherical boulders with a honeycomb centre (malteesers?) that are partially embedded in the beach. For some geological reason they only exist along a very small length of the beach
Moeraki Boulders
After coffee we headed on to our destination and checked into the hotel. On our way we saw the snow covered Southern Alps off to our left.
In the afternoon we headed into town to explore. There is a large area which was originally a wharf with may warehouses which have now been turned into stores and galleries.
View From the Passenger Seat
Tonight it was off for a “posh” meal (anniversary!) and then we went in hunt of the elusive penguin. We had two options, go to the beach and hope to see some penguins, or go to an organised penguin watch. We went for the latter, splashing out on the business class viewing area. What a great choice we made. We were able to see the penguins swimming in in their rafts (a group of 50 or so penguins), landing on the beach, waddling up the rocks and into their colony. They were as close as 6ft away.