Never saw no stinkin' penguins.

In line at the airport to come back to Australia, a group of American college students here on exchange for a term were in front of us talking about their past two weeks touring New Zealand. One girl was exclaiming, "Yea, so last night we watched the penguins come up out of the ocean onto the shore. They were sooo cute, and they just waddled up and came to their little nests. We all just watched and it was so great!!" Ross quietly says to me in line, "How jealous are you right now, Mom?"

Well, I will be back! In fact, we may get to see the penguins come ashore next month on the south coast here. For now I can only be jealous.

"That is a nice boulder."

Just up the road from Fleur's are the Moeraki Boulders. These are large, perfectly round rocks that sit in the sand and have for quite some time. They were shaped as pearls are, once upon a time, with the earth all around them. Now the earth has eroded and the pearl boulders are left for us to climb on and photograph. No penguins here, but cool rocks, nonetheless.

Urunga is so small. How small is it?

A quick side note before I go on and on and on about our amazing trip to New Zealand: The stores here close at 5:30. Maybe even 5. One of our friends here said, "We have late-night shopping on Thursdays! They stay open till 8! Do you have that in the states?" Awww.

A great little restaurant

We left Dunedin on our way north back to Christchurch. We stopped at Fleur's in Moeraki. Okay, I could live here. And hike at Otago Peninsula. And eat at Fleur's every day. It was recommended to us by our rafting buddies in Queenstown, two bungy jumps and a lot of chocolate and kilometres ago. We had to try it. Fleur is a colorful individual who runs this quaint, perfect eatery on the water in the smallest fishing village around. She gets up from her desk at one of the first tables in the door to seat you and take your order in her silver-tipped cowboy boots and bleach-blond hair. The fish was caught that morning by a local and filleted by the chef out on the front patio while Pat watched and chatted. We loved the decor, the food, and the vibe. And the food.

Tramping on the Peninsula

We went in search of penguins that are said to come ashore at dusk. We did find sea lions and beautiful birds. And we hiked. We started out through a farmer's pasture and ended at the ocean in time to see a sea lion snoozing on the sand. No people. All along the shore there are farmlands and remote houses perched up on the hillsides. I took 100 pictures every other curve in the road. Fortunately Ross didn't jump from the car in exasperation! And Pat is very patient, too! They humored me by taking the first trek, and listened while I oohed and ahhed at every view (which is mostly the same - ocean, ocean, and more hillside with ocean!). Without offering to stop at the next trek, they let me entertain the idea of coming back someday to take each one. I really was obsessed. It was wonderful.

But still no penguins.

How Much Farther?

We road tripped off to Dunedin after our tour on the water out to the Tasman Sea. More beautiful scenery. We landed at a great old (haunted) youth hostel and tucked in for the night. The city is not special in my mind, just larger than I like and more of a port town than charming city. It came highly recommended, so I tried to keep an open mind.

The youth hostel was an old brick building with many little hallways and nooks to explore. The TV room was in the basement down an old rickety staircase, and in another cubby for $10 you could rent the claw-foot bathtub/bathroom for a cozy soak complete with candles and bath salts. Our room had three walls of windows (not bad for a tiny room!) big fluffy doonas, which was good because we were cold! New Zealand's weather mirrors Oregon's, so we felt at home - and cold!

We toured the Cadbury Factory which awarded us with a pocketful each of Easter leftover chocolates. We fell in love with Jaffas, orange flavored M&Ms. Yum. Not fans of Pineapple Lumps. Is it the name? Well, they taste like banana, so that could be it, too. We were shown a silo that has been transformed into a tourist gimic. We climbed a staircase that circled a very very large vat. "Don't touch the railings, ladies and gentlemen, they are covered with chocolate." Picture Ross right now. Then, at the push of a button, the guide opened the vat and melted chocolate poured out into a trough below by the gallons, sure enough, spattering more onto the coated railings. It was then piped up back into the vat to be ready for the next tour. I foolishly asked (but I was sincere!) what this represented. The guide told me, "Nothing. We do it because we can!" Silly me.

Then we went on a sea lion and penguin hunt.

Fiord Land!

So, I survived both of their bungy jumps miraculously enough. We drove on to Milford Sound, famous for it's beautiful waterways through the fiords. They get 9 metres of rain per year. So, it was raining. The good news is, when it rains cats and dogs, which is WAS, there are waterfalls EV-ER-Y-where. It started with, "Ooh, look at the waterfall, Mom!" Then it was, "Ooh, there's another one, Ross!" "Diantha, there's two over there." Then we just quit talking and gazed out the windows in amazement. We counted over 21 on one mountainside area alone. We're told when the rain stops, within 20 the waterfalls are gone. We did not get to see that.

We stayed in a lodge at the base of the mountains and the entrance to the fiords. It was dark. It was damp. It was pouring. Our bunkhouse was a mixed dorm for 7 people. That night it held four American college kids from the east coast hoping to trek for 3 days if it stopped raining, which it did not, and us. I was at the car when Pat and Ross met them just moving into the room, too. The boys were being polite, asking where we wanted our beds. "I don't know," says Pat. "I'll ask my wife." He says the boys just looked at each other. When I walked in they were all staring at me. Well. We chose our beds and bunked down, me and all the guys! Let's just say, I don't remember such a stench growing up with two sisters.

The next morning we boarded our tour boat for two hours on the sound. Fantastic. Soaking wet, freezing cold, and fantastic. We saw seals on the rocks, but it was not dolphin season, apparently.

Our drive after took us out of the sound and over to the east coast to Dunedin, home of, among other things, the Cadbury chocolate factory. Yes!