The Long Ride to Dunedin

We named our room the "flying beagles" room. Our first night we left our windows open and had the light on, not realizing that this time of year they have tons of grub beetles. Before we knew it, we had at least a dozen bugs flying around the room, that looked and sounded like bees. I braved it out for about 2 minutes before I ran out of the room. Kelly, one of the other ladies, is highly allergic so she was getting as far away as she could. Mary Lang, a biology professor who was also allergic, was trying to swat the "bees" out with a towel. I was on my way to get Wynston, our guide, when Mary Lang killed one and realized they were not bees. When we told Wynston about it the next day, he told us they were grub beetles and had a good laugh. My guess is it would have been even worse if we had gotten him late at night to get rid of the "bees". Of course it didn't take long before someone messed up and called them "flying beagles", hence our room became known as the flying beagle room.

So today was largely a driving day. We left at 6:30 am and drove about 8 hours from Kaikoura to Dunedin. (By the way, the Maori came from Polynesian islands, so syllables typically end on the vowel, and all letters are pronounced.)

The landscape in this area is interesting. This is the driest area of New Zealand, so they planted hardy grass which looks like wheat until they get rain, when it quickly turns green. The side of the road is also dotted with tons of sheep (think merino wool), cows, deer (raised for the venison), and even alpaca.

Once in Dunedin, we drove about an hour out to the end of the Otago peninsula to take a boat ride. To me it was not nearly as good as yesterday. I got a better look at a blue penguin, and saw an albatross flying. But the albatross and seals we saw were much further away than yesterday, and we did not see any new animals.

Tomorrow we head to Stewart Island on the tip of New Zealand for a couple of days. We should see kiwis birds there.

By the way, I added my pictures off the seals to yesterday's blog.