Southern Scotland

Dunedin and its appendix, the Otago peninsula, are the Kiwi equivalent of Scotland. Even though the weather fulfilled the clichés about Scotland, we immediately felt fond of the city of Dunedin. The city is built around the central octagon, without regard to the mountainous relief of the soil. Thus, Dunedin comes up with the steepest streets of New Zealand.



Don´t exaggerate

Apart from that, we strongly believe that going out must be great in Dunedin - if we only have had the time to stay for the night! :) But even without exploring Dunedin´s nightlife we got our share of the cake: We visited the Speights brewery, another one of these Disneyland breweries where you get to see more promo products than you learn about the actual brewing procedure. Nevertheless, they gave out free samples at the end and we overcame our inhibitions and gulped down even their new apricot-flavored beer (!). I hope Stevie will provide you with some sweet photos of this event when he has solved his photo-storing problems and becomes and active blogging member again ;)

Another activity, of which we unfortunately don´t possess pictures, took place on the Otago Peninsula. But this time it was in the nature of the event: We sacrificed our (Saturday) evening in Dunedin in favor of the rare and tiny Blue Penguin, which crawls ashore on the Otago Peninsula every night at about 10 o´clock PM to feed their chicks. These penguins are incredibly shy and no noise and lights, not even focus lights of cameras (not to mention flashes) are allowed during this spectacle of nature. It was eerie and awe-inspiring to crouch in the mud in the dark, the slight drizzle soaking our clothes, in order to watch (or rather hear) the penguins approach. They were swimming ashore in rafts, waddling up the beach and passing us closely. They were almost stepping on our toes as we sat there holding our breaths, only to disappear into darkness again, following the hungry cries of their chicks back in the grassy hills.
It wasn´t maybe the most comfortable experience, nor did you get to really see how a blue penguin looks like in detail, but it felt more real than any visit to a zoo or anything similar.


This one accidentally crossed our headlights on the parking lot (where we were camping this night, too tired to go back to the city again). The only (shaky) picture we have of the Blue Penguins.

Say Dun-EE-din at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephan_mittas/sets/72157614261292559/