Day 22, Te Anau to Dunedin

We had a great nights sleep in Te Anau and awoke slowly to an overcast day. A quick breakfast was in order and then we packed up and jumped in the car for the 4-hour drive to Dunedin. We arrived in this delightful city around 1:00 pm and went directly to the I-site in the central park of downtown called the Octagon. We were able to find accommodations in a motel out on the Otago Peninsula. At first we thought it was in the middle of nowhere however it worked out to be a wonderful location. It was literally 5 minutes from the Royal Albatross Colony sanctuary and about 3 minutes to the Yellow Eyed Penguin Sanctuary and less than 20 minutes from The Lanark Castle the only castle in NZ. We went up to the Albatross Sanctuary to have a look around, made reservations for a tour tomorrow and then had dinner at the café. After dinner we went to the Blue Penguin colony that is on a private farm and is run by donations and revenues from the offered tours. The tours were great with a 10 minute bus ride over the very hilly terrain to the beach on the opposite side of the peninsula and a short walk down to the beach area where we were able to watch the small penguins emerge from the water and stand on the beach for about 10 minutes while hey gathered there strength from the 12 to 14 hours spent at sea fishing for themselves and their chicks waiting patiently all day for their return. We were able to get very close to the chicks and adults by using a series of blinds and trenches to move about the area. We left the Yellow Eyed Penguin to return to the head of the Peninsula to and to Pilot Beach where Blue Penguins return from a day at sea at dusk. We were able to see about 8 birds swim in through the surf and waddle up the beach and into the undergrowth to enter their burrows for the night before they return to the sea at dawn. Back to the motel and little catch up on the blog and then to bed we