kangaroo-jen: Otago Peninsula and The Catlins

After two days in Dunedin I picked up another girl who's going to travel with me the next couple of days. She's german but we decided to talk in english or lets say I insisted of talking in english ;-)
Our first stop was the Otago Peninsula where we saw seals and sealions. Lucky us the weather was good even though it was cold, especially the wind was freezing.
Afterwards we went to Tunnel Beach which was pretty impressive. Big rock formations and beautiful beaches.
We drove to Balclutha where we went on a campground and the night in the tent was absolutely freezing and because of the condensation it was really damp inside the tent as well :-( I was happy to get up in the morning. Everything hurt and I felt like I haven't slept at all. But after breakfast I felt much better and then we made our way to the Catlins.

Pictures from Otago Peninsula:

a little seal playing in the seaweed

sealion

Tunnel Beach


I've always wanted to stand on the horizon :-)

Tina & Me

amazing rock formations

I'm seeing a face in this rock :-)

After the freezing night in the tent we drove to the Catlins and our first stop there was Nugget Point, then Cannibal Bay where we saw heaps of big sealions. They were just laying around at the beach and you have to be careful not to get too close to them otherwise they can get aggressive and chase after you. It started raining in the afternoon so were stayed the night in a hostel.

The next morning we drove to Slope Point, the most southern point of the South Island about 5000km from the South Pole. That was one of the windiest places I've been I guess. Even the trees were shaped from the wind.

Afterwards we drove to Purpoise Bay and found a nice hostel right at the beach and lucky me, I saw my first dolphins - Hector Dolphins, the rarest dolphin in the world and very small. I couldn't believe my eyes and was so happy to see them but of course it's pretty hard to get a good picture because there so fast.

on the way to the Catlins

Nugget Point

sealions

a male sealion

there's always something funny happening when you're driving...

like sheep crossing the street

some waterfalls along the way

New Zealand sheep

Slope Point - the most southern point of the South Island

Around lunchtime we drove to Purpoise Bay and found a nice hostel right at the beach and lucky me, I saw my first dolphins - Hector Dolphins, the rarest dolphins in the word and really small. I couldn't believe it and of course its hard to get a good picture of them. And in the afternoon it got even better...I went for a run along the beach and I saw a couple of people in the icecold water and when I came closer I knew why - the dolphins were swimming very close to the beach so that was my chance..I took off my clothes and went in my undies into the water...you have no idea how cold it was...but I forgot about the cold water when I had the dolphins right next to me, swimming around me. It was absolutely amazing and I couldn't believe it. And I got it for free :-))) One of my best experiences

Cathedral Cave


sunset at Purpoise Bay

Then penguin watching in the evening:
Unfortunately there were a lot of tourists and although it is not allowed to go closer than 10 metres to the penguins, some people just don't care and there was this one little penguin and about 20 people around him, circling it and taking pictures from less than 10 metres. I actually felt really sorry for the penguin and I hate it that some people just don't respect the wildlife. I mean I would have loved to take pictures from very close but I rather stay in the distance and respect the penguins. And I took good pics from the distance as well.