New Zealand-finally the end!

Dunedin was the next stop on our two week tour of the South Island of New Zealand. Dunedin (pronounced Done Eden) was actually founded by Scottish and the name Dunedin is the Celtic name for Edinburgh. Dunedin is home to the Speight's Brewery which we toured and everyone got a sample of beer. The kids had fun helping Ted fill his cup. The tour guide was fantastic and it was really interesting to learn the process of beer making. They have a tap outside so townspeople can come and fill up water jugs. This is the water used in the beer as well. The spring produces a huge amount water daily. We also toured the Cadbury factory and sampled lots of yummy chocolate as well as learning some about the chocolate making process. We also drove up the world's steepest street according to the Guinness Book of Records. We wimped out and drove both up and down. I must admit it was a bit creepy as it was steep! We did not stay in Dunedin but stayed out on the Otago Peninsula. We had the most incredible day ever when we were guided around the Peninsula with wildlife filmmaker Robert Brown. His knowledge of the animals and environment were amazing. He gave me some photography tips as well. Everyone really enjoyed the day and would say this was probably our favorite day in New Zealand. We saw the nesting boxes for the little blue penguins (they hunt in the day and come in at night). The peninsula also is home to yellow eyed penguins but they are solitary animals and harder to find as they to just come ashore at dusk. Robert took us all around to secluded areas where we came face to face with both male and female sea lions. One female sea lion even had a pup which we could see and even hear it nursing! It was so interesting to watch them. The male sea lions that we saw were teenager sea lions and really tried to "strut their stuff" by trying to keep the females out of the water so they would stay near them. One of the males charged us but we were told just to stand our ground and they would stop which is good because they have very sharp teeth. Many them had radio devices on them which will monitor their activity for 6 weeks. Why on earth scientists need to know how deep they dive is beyond me. The teenager male was constantly going after the females. They weren't being mean just simply bugging them. It reminded me of the way dogs play fight. The next stop was to go to the tip of the island, Taiaroa Head, to get a glimpse of the royal albatross. This is the only mainland breeding colony for any of the albatross species in the southern hemisphere. I really didn't know anything about them before going so learning that their wingspan was over 3 meters or 9 ft and that they can weigh over 20lbs was impressive! Imagine one of those hitting your windshield. Fortunately that will never happen as they are sea birds. Our guide told us to come back towards dusk when the winds picked up so we could see the birds soar to land. They looked enormous in the sky.
After our two nights in Dunedin we headed towards Mt. Cook. We stopped to see the the Moeraki Boulders. The kids had fun climbing on them. When we stayed in Franz Joseph we were only about 20 miles from the Mt. Cook village but due to the mountains you can only reach it from the east. Unfortunately the weather was rainy so we didn't even get to see Mt. Cook, but considering we had fantastic weather the rest of the trip I can't complain! After one night in the village of Mt. Cook we drove towards Christchurch. We stopped at the famous Church of the Good Shepard at Lake Tekapo. The drive to Christchurch was a much easier drive as we crossed the Canterbury Plains that is primarily farmland. I missed seeing the mountain scenery but this just confirmed our wonderful 2 week adventure was coming to an end. We headed the apartment and repacked luggage and headed for the airport the next morning for a long, long flight back to Chennai. The first thing I noticed when I got off the airplane was the lack of the wonderful crisp clean air of New Zealand!

Logan filling up his water bottl~with water

Pouring beer

Robert Brown showing us some sea weed

Little Blue Penquin boxes

A teenager male sea lion

A mama and her baby

He was yelling at me!

A Royal Albatross

The Moeraki Boulders

I was goofing off, the kids always do stuff like this when I am taking photos! Mason was trying to get a photo of the church and I couldn't resist!

Church of the Good Shepard

Lake Tekapo~don't you love the blue water?

Again, thanks for your patience with these entries and for all the photos. I took so many photos it was hard to decide which ones to post. I will be back to blogging about India next! I have some interesting photos I took last week!

And if anyone is interested in more photos you can click New Zealand for more photos