A late night drive from Invercargill brought us back to Dunedin where we stayed a few more nights. We ventured to St. Claires Beach and my goodness what a beautiful spot it was.
Another breath taking spot.
I convinced my dear travel mate that venturing out to Larnach Castle on the ridge of Otago Peninsula. Larnach Castle was built by an Australian man with a dream to build a castle as a private residence. On our wandering of the grounds, we learned that this man had 3 wives die and in the end he took his own life. A tragic story with a lovely little castle left behind. The grounds were beautiful with so many interesting plants. Succulents everywhere!
Our next destination was Sandfly Bay to hopefully get a glimpse of more penguins. 15 km outside of Dunedin and yet another gorgeous place to see. Really, when there is a beach, there is beauty. Despite the normalcy of sandflies attacking you here, this is not where this particular beach got its name. Thankfully there were very few pesky sandflies here. With the large sand dunes and the windy nature of this coast, the sand flies off the dunes surrounding the bay. We also discovered that this beach is a popular location for Sea Lion's to bathe in the sun.
Penguin!
The sandstone coastline of south of Dunedin is gorgeous with its high rocky cliffs and at this particular beach, a hand carved tunnel, built in the 1870's, which at low tide leads you to a secluded beach at the base of the cliffs. This was one of our last stops on our last night in Dunedin. The sound of the waves crashing into the cliffs was mesmerizing.
Once we left the beach we headed back into town for a farewell dinner with our gracious host at the Dog with Two Tails for some eats and live Jazz. It was a wonderful last evening spent in the wonderful city of Dunedin.
Since my German friend decided it was getting too cold in New Zealand and needed some warmer weather booked a flight to Vietnam. It too nearly all of my willpower to resist purchasing a ticket for myself. This meant the we had to gear up to get back on the road North to get to the airport in Auckland in a weeks time.
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