We woke in Betty's Bach (from bachelor, a primitive waterfront cabin), with eyes opening wider and wider at the display of all sorts of water birds (my current favorite is the Various Oyster Catcher, a lot like a Raven with bright red eyes, long pointy red bill and 10" red legs, a jaunty fellow). By the time we left the crib (a Bach) we had watched a sea lion come onto the sand flat about 200' away and loll and roll around in the sand. Our time here has seemed as if we are in the middle of a wild life sanctuary, with, of course, 10,000 sheep thrown in. By the end of the day we had visited two beaches, an albatross protected nesting site (complete with red eyed seagulls with perfect polka dot feathers on the edges of their wings), seen two dozen large sea lions, and some yellow eyed penguins for whom the word trundle was invented, at least I'm pretty sure that's where the word came from!
We ended the afternoon with a trip to Sandfly Beach: a drive that was scarily picturesque (steep hillsides) and involved a walk through a sheep pasture complete with sheep ("hey, we're IN the same fence as these guys!"), then down thru dunes 1/4 mile to the beach. Here we found sea lions lolling again (had been warned by signage to stay 10m away). I felt again as if I'd walked into a calendar page for the South Pacific, too much to see, too much beauty between eye blinks!
Bob had a quick swim outside our Bach door modifying his plan,when the current got hold of him, to swim closer to shore. We finished the day in the Portobello Brew Pub. Home at 8:30, still bright and sunny out. tomorrow we leave the Otago Penninsula, on the edge of Dunedin and head off to Queenstown, our last stop before heading home.
