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The drive to Dunedin from Queenstown was a pleasant sunny
trip partly through near desert areas that reminded us of Northern New Mexico or Arizona. We only saw a few thousand sheep on this trip – a mere nothing, did we mention that there are sheep in New Zealand?
 We stayed at Larnach Castle in Dunedin, which is the major tourist
attraction in that region. It has 12 rooms in an adjacent structure and we stayed in the  Queen Victoria room that had a great view of
the outer harbor and the Otago peninsula, our visiting target for the next day. We had dinner that night in the castle with 5 other couples, which was OK, but the surroundings outshone
the food. We did meet some interesting people who, like the shipmates on the Blue Lagoon cruise, had lots of travel advice for our upcoming venue.
 The next day was a four star all Gisèle animal day. (Ed. Note: despite
constant grief to the contrary, Larry finally had to admit that the penguins were REALLY cute – so this was not the "Gisèle" day after all!).  It started with a visit to the Yellow Eyed Penguin Reserve and a
tour of their facility. While many of the penguins were out fishing for the day, we did see a few up close including one who had taken over one of the "tourist tunnels" as a nest and place to molt. Arnie
can be seen here giving her sympathy. The reserve is designed to keep the tourists in covered Viet Cong type tunnels throughout the penguin living areas and thus you can get
fairly close to them. The government run Penguin Beach keeps you a hundred yards away from them. The reserve was fun and Gisèle got a supply of penguin labeled items.
 We then went on the Royal Albatross reserve, which is the only
mainland place in the world where the albatrosses nest and mate. While the parents were out to sea fishing during our visit, we did get to see some chicks up close, again with us being kept in the blinds and
the birds having the run of the place. These are cute chicks that turn into total fuzzy butterballs in preparation for their first flight that can take then halfway around the world and away from home for two
or three years. Before they learn to fly they outweigh their parents on a 2:1 basis. The reserve was a very interesting place.
 We concluded the all-animal day with a dusk visit to Penguin
Beach where you can stand up on the cliffs and watch the Yellow Eyed Penguins come home after a day of fishing. They come home at dusk and hop out of the surf like drunks from a
cab, occasionally turning around for one last graceful swim before heading up the beach. They then make their way up the sand and meet their mates and climb up the dunes to their
nests. It's a lot of work with backsliding as the steep soft dune sand gives way. They finally get home and rest for the night and go off at dawn to start all over again.
  We then walked over to watch the seal pups at nearby Seal Beach. The seals clearly enjoyed themselves and the sunset over Penguin Beach was spectacular.
We ended the day with a meal in a good local restaurant and got ready to depart Dunedin the next day. While at the restaurant, we met some very nice locals who insisted that we had to
visit the Moeraki Boulders the next day. We agreed.
 We left Dunedin after exploring the castle and its grounds.
It's an interesting place and not what you would expect to find in New Zealand. However, this area was settled by Scots, some of whom became quite wealthy during the New Zealand
gold rush in the mid 1800's, and they did what all good immigrants do - recreate parts of their homeland in their new countries. This shows up in the British names for a lot of the
local towns and, of course, the castle on the top of the hill in Dunedin.
On to Christchurch...
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