A town of limestone

We stop for lunch at the town of Oamaru. It is famous for its buildings made of creamy limestone from a nearby quarry. Again, not a typical NZ town. With their neoclassical architecture and elaborate carvings, they almost look out of place in this small coastal time. The limestone is quite soft, so it encourages the carvers be intricate with their designs on the buildings and columns.

More rocks...

But these are actually boulders. The large, spherical boulders at Moeraki beach are famous. We walk down the beach a bit to take pictures of these rocks which look like the shells of giant tortoises. There are lots of theories about how they got here or how they formed, but no one is quite sure.
It is a warm sunny day and the beach is beautiful. The 10-15 people here are looking at the rocks. No one is here today (a Sunday) for a day at the beach.

Otago Peninsula

We make the short drive out of Dunedin to the Otago Peninsula, driving all the way to the end to sit on the headlands and watch the albatross fly by. There are also penguin colonies to visit but
it is getting late.

Our inn tonight is wonderful, a small cottage build by the innkeeper who lives on the property. It has wonderful view of the garden and a large kitchen and sitting area. We wish we had more time here since it is such a special place.

A wee bit o Scotland

That would be Dunedin, known as the Edinburgh of the South. Dunedin is the Gaelic word for Edinburgh. We had the weather to match as well - an overcast Scottish day.
This is a fairly large city for NZ and fascinating to walk around. After a brief time as a whaling town in the 1830's, a group of Scots were settled here. One town elder was the poet Robert Burns' nephew. They were an industrious lot and established NZ's first university here. There was a building frenzy fueled by a nearby gold rush in the 1860's. The Gothic-Revival architecture is its defining characteristic. Not your typical NZ city.

We walk for several hours seeing the Otago Museum, the botanic gardens and stroll through the University grounds.

A change of plans

We decided to cancel our plans to travel the entire south, southeast coast known as the Catlins and of course that included Stewart Island. These are places I would really like to see, but we simply don't have the time. Stewart Island is at least a 2-3 day experience. The Catlins require at least another 2 days. So instead we leave Te Anau and head for Dunedin.

Pounamu

This is the Maori word for greenstone. The Maori revere greenstone since during pre-European times it took the place of metals. Weapons, tools and jewelry were made from this hard, prized stone known officially as nephrite jade. The entire So. Island is know as "Te Wahi Pounamu", the place of greenstone. On our cruise thru Milford Sound we passed a beach near the sound's outlet to the sea. This bay was a great collection point for the stone. Greenstone was as valuable to the Maori as gold was to Europeans.
We learned just about all you could want to know about this stone in the small coastal town of Greymouth. The store was almost a museum experience. Of course all the tourist shops in most towns have a selection of greenstone. Most of it is quite expensive.

Fresh water/ salt water

We board a 3 masted ship and set out for a cruise of the Sound and a bit of the Tasman Sea. There are numerous waterfalls that would be even more plentiful if it were raining. But I prefer the sunny day. We pass fur seals lolling on the rocks and sea birds. No penguins in sight today, though.
The water is not the deep blue you might expect. There is a 2 meter layer of fresh water that rides atop the sea water in the Sound. This water has a lot of tannins in it from the lush rain forest all around us, so the water has murkier look.
There are no beaches, only sheer 2000-3000 ft cliffs plunging straight into the waters. Several of the permanent waterfalls are over 500 ft tall.
This tour does a good job with the natural history as well as the boxed lunch. The scenery is a 360 degree wonder, looking somewhat different on the return trip through the sound as the light changes.
While out on the Tasman Sea we got a glimpse of the whole coastline and felt a good 2-3 meter swell.