Honeymooning around the world: Dunedin: penguins, seals, beautiful views and Speight's brewery

Since Markus' parents were driving down the West coast and they were about 1,5 weeks ahead of us, we drove down the East coast to meet them somewhere along the way. We had a long (~9 h) drive from Takaka to Christchurch where we overnighted. On our way we saw some beautiful views, such as the one below 😍

Markus remembered that there should be a swing bridge somewhere along the way and he found it this time as well! It was a stop-over place (or it seemed like one) where people could go for short walks, speedboating or do a short zip-line over he river. It cost 10 NZD pp. We walked over the bridge, which we understand can be scary for some people - it was moving quite a lot, especially if there were other people on the bridge at the same time and one could see right through it 😛 After the bridge there was a short walk in the forest where one could see on which level the river has been when it flooded and some old trucks and diggers from old gold mines for example. On our way back, we saw a sign of a forest track. Markus went for it and Edda was supposed to wait at the swing bridge. Edda went there and waited. At the same time a guy organizing the zip-line asked whether if Edda wanted to do the zip-line (30 NZD). No, it was too short. The guy dropped the price to 20 NZD. No, still not interested. After all, we had already done a 1,5 km zip-line in Costa Rica 😜 Then the price came down to 10 NZD (We don't believe there were too many customers that day...). Well, Edda thought she would wait for Markus and then they could go together for the price. BUT, there were millions of sandflies, so Edda could not sit any longer there and had to go inside.

On our way, also the landscape changed a lot. All the sudden everything was even dryer and it started to look like Peru or Chile! Yellow/brown mountains with very little vegetation.

On our snack break we saw a frog rock!

Then we finally came to Christchurch. We had booked an Airbnb a bit from the center since we only needed a place to sleep. It was a couple that had two rooms that they rented out. Smart. Our room was nice and what was the best (at least in Edda's mind) was that they had A LOT of cats 😍 They had four cats and two kittens that were only two days old! They were so cute. The couple had a very nice vegetable garden as well. It seemed that they didn't have to buy much from a store.

For some reason we keep seeing fires in every country! Now there was a huge bush fires in Christchurch when we were there. We could even see the flames! During our time in NZ we have heard a lot about this fire and it took over a week to get it under control and for evacuated people to return to their homes. During the operations of putting down the fires, one helicopter dropped and the pilot died. 😢 It was the biggest fire Christchurch has ever had.

Well, let's continue forward from the bad news. We continued the following day to Dunedin, about 6 hours again. On our way we saw a shop called Nelson honey and popped in. We bought a small jar of honey and a beewax moisturizer. Too bad they were out of pollen, Edda would've needed a new jar. But nice to find such places along the way!

We also stopped at Katiki point lighthouse. Unfortunately it was not possible to visit the lighthouse itself, but it was possible to walk around on the coast. It was quite windy and not at all too warm! 😝 On the coast there were many seals moving around, laying around or scratching themselves. They looked funny! Then we were lucky too, because we saw three yellow-eyed penguins! They are quite rare (only 205 pcs in NZ/2015), so it was cool to see them.

"Charlie's angels" curls made by wind 😄

Yellow-eyed penguin

Hello, how are you?

Markus and some seals

In Dunedin we stayed in two different backpackers. It was not very easy to find accommodation there either. We were rather tired the first evening so we went out for dinner instead of cooking ourselves. Markus found a nice restaurant, Gaslight café. We didn't have a reservation, so we had to wait ~30 min to get a table. The food was delicious. For example, Edda's mushroom pasta was more mushrooms than pasta, which is rare. Our waiter was not that good, though. She just threw our plates on the table and left. Without her, the experience would've been perfect. But it was nice now, too!

We had read in Lonely Planet and also heard from others that we have to see the Tunnel Beach in Dunedin. It is a beautiful place where a man once built a tunnel through a rock so that his daughters would have access to a beach. We enjoyed the views first from the highest peak on the rock formation, then Markus chilled on the edge on a lower peak and then we walked through the tunnel to the beach. Good timing, because the tide was coming up and now there was still a beach to walk on. Then again, we don't know how high the water usually comes.

Just chilling!

The famous tunnel to the beach

Beautiful beach it was!

Markus playing on the beach 😄

After Tunnel Beach we drove around and ended up to Harington Point where they have an albatross center and organized penguin walks. We walked around in the museum/info center but didn't take any guided tours, because they were again a bit costly. But we did enjoy the views from there! On our way back we took a road that was on top of the hill and we could see all the way to Dunedin center and on the other side we saw the ocean. It was a very nice drive!

After the scenic route, we drove to Dunedin's railway station, which works mainly as a tourist attraction. The train operations include tourist train rides. The building is beautiful and it was interesting to see old ticket booths inside and their great mosaic work on the floor. It has stayed in very good condition, which is nice.

Tiny mosaics all lined up to make a beautiful floor

Edda had found a brewery in Dunedin that also organizes tours. Since Edda doesn't drink beer, Markus took the tour on his own. The tour was mainly about Speight's brewery and brewery history in NZ and Dunedin. Some interesting facts were that Speigt's beer in Dunedin tastes a bit different than the beer made in Auckland's Speigt's brewery. It is because in Dunedin, they have an own dwell under the brewery, so the water is different from Auckland's and water is the most important ingredient in brewing beer. During the gold rush 1861-1865, the brewing industry was almost like a gold mine 😉 Dunedin was one of the richest cities in Oceania that time and the gold miners liked to drink beer. We saw also the old side that was closed few years ago when they renewed their brewery because Christchurch brewery was destroyed few years ago in a big earthquake. The brewery has a water tap outside so people can fill up their water tanks with fresh water. From the water tap is pumped 1 million liter water a year. The tour was around 90 minutes and in the end we could have few beers. The brewery offered five different beers and one cider. Most of them were quite good.