24^th December, 2015

We caught a taxi at 9.30am to Britz Campers at Queenstown Airport and pickedu p our relocation motorhome. Its a 6 berth – so quick spacious for the 2 of us – YAY!!

We made our way along the southern tourist route along the river (wow – what gorgeous views) and then started making our way across NZ to the other side to Moeraki.

The trip was gorgeous – the further east we headed though, the smaller the mountains became till there were just “hills”. The scenery reminded me of Gippsland, near Toora (only much bigger). The towns were so quaint. We both commented on how everything looks like it is straight out of 1960/1970. The houses, the gardens, the streets. There is next to no street signage, no “advertising” signage to distract you. No traffic lights either. Most of the houses have an Art Deco look to them and the majority look like they haven't been touched or renovated since they were originally built.

We loved the fact everything looks like it stopped in time when things were simpler.

We drove into Dunedin. Loved this town. WOW – the old architecture, very edwardian – just gorgeous. It actually reminded me a lot of Vancouver Island's “Victoria”. Big wide streets, and awesome architecture. We stopped to grab more supplied and a SIM Card at Vodaphone… we also found a shopping mall, so I managed to buy something in the 5mins we were in there! Lol

From Dunedin it was only 1 hours drove to Moeraki and the road headed towards the coast.

We went to the Lighthouse, where we were told were Yellow Eyed Penguins and also seals. We were lucky to see a Penguin quite close – although shrouded in shrubbery. I had the right lens with me, so I got a photo of his face – at least it was something! We didn't see anymore other than one swimming in the distance. It was about 5.30pm, so still very early for them to be in.

We did see lots of seals – they were everywhere basking on the rocks.  Even got to see a seal Pup!  I scaled a fence to get a bit closer. Of course I wanted to get all the way down to them, but I didn't want to disturb them, and also the fact I wasn't supposed to be in there!! lol One seal sat up for me as he wasn't happy with me being as close as I was. But I was happy – I got a few animal shots! YAY

I was quite surprised to see a dead Hedgehog. Tiny little thing it was. It wasn't an echidna – totally different…. So NZ have Hedghogs – well that is enough reason right there to move here I say! Plenty of rabbits too – just as bad as Australia.

From there we went off to find the Moeraki Boulders. We paked at the car park and we cooked dinner (was cool to be able to do that right there) and then we grabbed our gear and did the 10min walk to the boulders. Beach was very big and ws hard sand which made it very easy walking!

The tide was out – all the way out, so no waer anywhere near close to the rocks. We spent some time talking to other tourists. I even chatted to a guy from Texas who was deaf (we did text on his phone) and I let him borrow my Lee Filters for a try (he's a convert) – we are now friends on Instagram! :)

Of course ALL day the skies were full of heavy cloud - FULL of it…. By sunset, there was barely a cloud to be seen at the boulders! ARGGHHH – of course -bloody hell. I swear the weather gods are not on our side. Anyway, we stayed till dark and kept pushing the shutter button. I am sure there'll be a couple of good shots for us both – but none with any vivid colour.

We vowed to get up at sunrise to do it again. Unfortunately we didn't have any internet connection, so we couldn't find out what the tides were doing, or what time sunrise actually was.

We drove back to the camp ground and got checked in and snuggled up in our new bed and quickly fell asleep.