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Traveling the world

December 2019 - April 2020
A 139-day adventure by Christina Read more
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  • TravelerTraveling the world
    Day 36

    Over Oamaru to Moeraki

    January 5, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    It was raining overnight and the morning, but at least it was not getting so cold again as last night!
    It also stopped raining around 8 o'clock, so that was nice.

    I anyway took it easy in the morning and I don't have to much planned for today, as I can't really say, what the weather is going to be today.
    The first stop was in Oamaru at the Farmers Market.
    I got some lovely berries 😋
    I also stopped at the lookout but decided against the penguin colony as it is the wrong time of the day to see them. And I don’t want to spend money on a tour.
    Next time!
    I did not really stop somewhere on the way to the Moeraki Boulders, the big black cloud over me was stopping me from doing something.    Read more

  • TravelerTraveling the world
    Day 36

    Moeraki Boulders

    January 5, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    The last stop for today was at the famous Moeraki Boulders!

    What a beautiful place this is!
    I stopped here fast around lunchtime but as it was high tide then you couldn’t see them so good so I went then to the campground instead.

    Now it was low tide. And also not so many people around anymore as around lunchtime! I like that!

    I took a nice walk around and looked at all the boulders.
    I was surprised to find out that the boulders are full of small crystals on the inside. As some of them have collapsed already you could see that the inside is full of small crystals, wow 🤩

    I was wondering a little bit in the beginning if they can really be a natural event.
    But they really are! They are inside the cliffs and as the ocean and wind are eroding the cliff more and more boulders are showing up!
    Really exciting!    Read more

  • TravelerTraveling the world
    Day 36

    Katiki Reserve

    January 5, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    As it was too early to go and look for some penguins and if coarse it was also high tide so the Moeraki Boulders are also not so good to see, I decided to check in early at the campground and take it easy until the later afternoon/ evening.

    The owner of the campground was really helpful and gave me a lot of information about the best time to visit the penguins and the Moeraki Boulders.
    As he looked up the high and low tide times for me, I said that I was thinking to go to the Moeraki Boulders at sunset, and he only said, no not at sunset! You need to go there for the sunrise, that's the best light you can get.
    Ok, I don't like to get up so early, but we will see what I am going to do.
    I was also surprised to hear that you can see the penguins already around 4 pm! I thought they are always going onshore in the late evening closed to sunset.

    After a while thinking backward and forward my plan was, to visit Katiki and the penguins in the afternoon and on the way back pass by the Moeraki Boulders. At least it will be low tide then.

    The first animal I saw when I came to the Katiki Reserve was actually a Yellow-eyed Penguin 😍
    How lucky I am! He was standing down close to the beach on the grass and was enjoying the sun 😊
    After a while watching this little fella I took a walk around the area. I saw a lot of fur seals everywhere, some were really close!
    It's a lot of birds around here as well, so there is much to see and the weather was so beautiful now, just a bit too windy, again 🙈
    When I came back to the first beach, the penguin was gone. But therefor there was another one up on the cliff and much closer to the track 🥰 Posing around like a rockstar and absolutely didn't care about all the people taking pictures.
    So amazing and so nice, that I got to see two penguins in such a short time!
    The yellow-eyed penguins are really rare and endangered.
    On the way back I met a woman how told me, that she was here already once, 10 years ago and there all the hill was covered with trees and bushes, what is now fields for cows, and there are used to be so many penguins all the way up the hill. So that was actually a little but sad to here, because that what we humans did to the penguins.. Destroy their habitat and now they are endangered, because of us 😕    Read more

  • TravelerTraveling the world
    Day 37

    Road to Dunedin

    January 6, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 13 °C

    After my early morning photo session, I went back to the campground at 6.30 and tried to sleep a little bit more.
    Around 8.30 I got up and had a nice breakfast. Then it was time to hit the road again. The weather forecast for today is bad. Much wind and rain around everywhere in the south...
    But the wind has a big plus, it usually never rains for a long time when it is blowing so much. And that’s what I got. A lot of wind, horrible wind and a few showers here and there. I tried to anyway stop on the way to Dunedin and see some stuff.

    The first stop was at a seal colony at Shag point. I saw a lot of seals laying around and doing notice. With the wind you don’t smell them, that’s really nice!

    The next stop was at Matanaka to see some old farmhouses.
    I was surprised, that I could actually walk into them as well. It was nice to see.
    Then I drove to the Evansdale Cheese Factory to buy some cheese.

    I can say the wind was getting worse now. 😬
    I anyway stopped at the Puketeraki lookout.
    The view was amazing and luckily I didn’t need to walk anywhere from there. All walking tracks I just passed as it’s too dangerous to go on a walk through a forest or up a hill today.

    After that the weather was so bad, that I decided to go directly to the campground and skip the rest of the Sightseeing-Tour for today!
    Good decision!
    It was horrible throughout the whole afternoon and evening. And it got really cold as well 😬
    Not nice!
    But it was nice to have a lazy afternoon today!
    I just hope the weather is better tomorrow, but it’s not looking like it. 🙈    Read more

  • TravelerTraveling the world
    Day 38

    Dunedin I

    January 7, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    This morning was full of rain. It was mostly short showers but quite heavy once. As I anyway gonna stay one more night here on the campground I was not in a hurry to leave and took it extremely clam the whole morning. Around 12 o'clock the weather seems to be quite ok and stabile so I left the campground for some exploring around the area and the city.

    The first stop was just a few kilometers away from the campground. A short but steep walk was leading to a nice small waterfall. Was good to stretch the legs again!

    After that I went to the Signal Hill Lookout.
    That was a really nice place with a beautiful view over Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula!
    The weather was really nice by now, still blowing a bit, but that's ok!

    The next stop on my lost was the botanic garden in Dunedin. It's a really big place with a lot to see and discover. Don't know how long I was walking around here 😉
    I was so impressed that I forget to have more pictures 🙈😬

    I think you can spend a whole day here without any problem!    Read more

  • TravelerTraveling the world
    Day 38

    Dunedin II

    January 7, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    As a tourist, I can't miss the famous Baldwin Street.
    It was for a long time the steepest street in the world, now it's ”only” the steepest street in the southern hemisphere, as the steepest street in the world is now in Wales!
    Of course, I walked all the way up to the top! 💪🏼
    It's a good walk up I can say 😂

    After that, I went to the city center. I found a really cheap parking place and went off to explore the city center. I must say, I like Dunedin! It's a really nice town with a lot of old buildings that give the whole town a lot of charm!

    In the later afternoon, I returned to the campground. Satisfied with the weather today and hungry like hell!
    It's time to taste the cheese I bought yesterday so today's dinner was cracker and cheese! I can say, the is a really, really good cheese! 🤗    Read more

  • TravelerTraveling the world
    Day 39

    Otago Penisula

    January 8, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    I woke up to a beautiful blue sky and I wind at all! Awesome! That’s really perfect as my plane for today is to discover the Otago Peninsula.

    I left the campground around 10 am and it’s was just a 25 minutes drive to my first Stopp, a lookout point.
    I of coarse was also climbing up the hill to get the best view over the peninsula and Dunedin!

    Next Stopp on the way was an old castle or so.
    I couldn’t really find the way down there so I only looked at it from the road.

    Then I went to the Sandymount Track. I walked the loop track here. First I passed through an old forest, next was a field with a lot of sheep to a nice viewing platform, then I had to continue over the field. I found a new friend in a sheep, that was starting to talk to me and answered me also all the time 😂
    That was funny.
    The track was going up a hill, a sandy hill. That was the hardest part, walking uphill on loose sand.
    The last part of the track was through bushes so it was a really nice and interesting track with a lot of different features and awesome views!    Read more

  • TravelerTraveling the world
    Day 39

    Monarch Cruises

    January 8, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    For the afternoon I booked a combo package.
    First I will cruise around the Otago Peninsula with Monarch Cruises and then I will visit the Penguin Place to hopefully see some Yellow-eyed Penguins and learn more about the wildlife here.

    I had to check-in 15 min before departure time.
    As I was done with my walks around 1 pm I went to the campground first and had some crackers with the lovely cheese for lunch!

    Then shortly before 2.30 pm I left the campground and was very good at time at the check-in for my cruise, it’s only a 10 min drive.

    The boat was just coming back from the previous tour so we had to wait until everything was ready dir our tour. Then it was time to board the ship. We were waiting a couple of minutes for another two people that were late but had to leave before they were showing up.
    We first went to some Shags colonies. There were two different Shags to see, on the first picture you can see the Otago Shags, that are only found around this area in New Zealand.
    In the second picture, it’s the Spotted Shags.
    They prefer totally different Typ of terrain as you can see!
    Our skipper gave us a lot of information about the area and the animals around us.
    Next up where the fur seals. One was trying to get up the cliffs but didn’t make it. We also saw a few puppies laying around in the middle of the fourth picture.
    Then we turned around the corner to see the nesting place for the Royal Albatrosses. It’s the only breeding colony on land!!

    Unfortunately, the weather conditions were not good to see them flying around. The weather is to good today 🙈😂
    No wind at all. Albatross needs wind to glide around. Their long but narrow wings are not made for flying long distances.
    You maybe can see some white spots on the last pictures, these are the nesting albatross.
    But it’s hard to see them.
    We then went out to the open ocean and tried to find some albatross testing on the ocean. We were actually lucky to spot one, but that one was flying away from us when we came closer.
    They breed only every second year. It’s a 12-month cycle to get and raise a chick, so after that the parents separated and leave for one year, just traveling around on the ocean and never touching land until it’s time to come back and breed again.
    The juveniles travel around for 4-8 years after leaving their nest without touching any land until they come back to breed for the first time!!
    They drink salt water and don’t like to be on the land at all. They rest on the ocean.
    Really interesting.

    On the way back we even saw two Little Blue Penguins, but they were to fast to be caught on a picture.
    Our skipper really tried to find some albatross, crossing around the area but we were not lucky. That’s how it is, I was at first lucky about the good weather conditions but in the end not anymore 🙈😂

    Anyway, it was a nice tour with a lot of information.
    Now I am looking forward to see some Yellow-eyed Penguins 🤗
    Please let me be lucky with that!!    Read more

  • TravelerTraveling the world
    Day 39

    Penguin Place I

    January 8, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    After the cruise, I had plenty of time to take me to the penguin place. It’s only a 3 minutes drive and I was booked on the tour at 4.45 pm.

    So I hade to wait a little bit there until the tour was starting.
    We first got into the information center and our guide Adrian told us a lot about the Yellow-eyed Penguins.
    There are only around 700 of them left so they are really, really rare and close to extinction. He also said, if you see one of them in nature you are lucky if you see two you are very, very lucky and if you see three of them on the same day you might go and play the lotto the same day, as you are extremely lucky!

    Their biggest problem is that we humans have destroyed their territory so much, that they don’t find nesting places anymore. They need shelter from the sun under some bushes and trees as the young once can not control their body temperature and overheat really fast. They also don’t like to live to closed to each other as they are the most unsocial penguins in the world so they need extremely much space as well.

    So the family that owns this farm since 1966 has started to rebuild their natural habitat for the penguins in 1980 and they do all they can to help them to increase their numbers again.
    Unfortunately, it is not so easy.

    They also have a kind of daycare for penguins, they get them from animal hospitals and feed them up until they can get released again into the wild. Their success rate is actually 95%!!
    They get the penguins from all over New Zealand, or better said from the south part of the South Island.
    Right now they have 4 chicks, which are here because their parents struggled to raise them.
    Then they have a juvenile yellow-eyed that had problems with his feathers and that one needs to stay here until the mold is over.
    They also have an adult Yellow-eyed Penguin, that was found underweight and need to get more weight before that one can get released into the wild again and then there is one Fjordland penguin as well!

    After all the information we went to see the patients. We had to be totally quiet and got a little bit of time to see them all and take pictures. That closed I probably never come to see them again.
    So that was really nice!    Read more

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