South to the Otago Peninsular

We picked up the X-Trail rental vehicle in Christchurch and, in spite of initially insoluble satnav trouble made it easily to our first air B and B at Willowby, near Ashburton.
Not very pretty countryside but interesting for all that. Green fields with incredibly high stocking rates of dairy cattle and sheep, the animals presumably moved almost daily. Windbreak hedges of conifer species up to about 8m tall. Plenty of European birds - abundant House Sparrows and also Greenfinches and Goldfinches and Starlings. Swamp Harriers seen frequently along the road, and Masked Lapwings in some arable fields as well as a few pairs of Paradise Shelducks.

We were greeted at our B and B by a six-year old lad on his little bike, who was a dead ringer for Ke Huy Quan when he was in the Goonies. He very much made himself at home in our lodge, jumping on the bed, telling us the toilet roll was for “ wiping our butts” and showing us proudly how he could park his bike using a pedal as a stand. A nice boy but we had to get rid of him. We never saw him again, nor anyone else.

Awoke to loud birdsong including melodious Auzzie Magpies - introduced non-natives, like so many things here.

On Day 2 we continued to Dunedin via Katiki Point south of Oamaru where we waited hopefully for nesting Yellow-eyed Penguins to return from the ocean to feed their young. We waited in vain but had great fun with the colony of Fur Seals there and also met a Wrybill Bird Tour group led by Matt Jones, an acquaintance from Rick’s recent trip to PNG.

Air B and B in Broad Bay along the north shore of the Otago PeninsularLæs mere