Dunedin woke us with cold but clear weather. Awesome sunrise! So lucky with sun and blue skies so far this trip. 
 We were picked up by our guide from a tour company I had booked, who handed us a packed lunch each and drove us to the old and unique Dunedin Railway Station. Here we boarded the 100 year old train taking us on a 4 hour trip to the Taieri Gorge. This trip is not to be missed. 
 
We travelled through, over and under the most incredible terrain, aqueducts, viaducts and bridges. Through sleepy, tiny hamlets, mountainous gorges, all the while looking down into amazing rivers and streams.

Live commentary by a youngish guy, who certainly had a story or three in his repertoire. The scenery was amazing, the colours of Autumn evident in the poplars and willows. We stopped a couple of times for even more photo opportunities.

Once back at the Central Railway station we were met by our guide who told us we were the only ones booked on our tour of the Otago Peninsular. How good was that? I must admit I have done quite a lot of travelling on the cusp of a season and found it to be the best time. So Chris, our guide, was such a nice guys, very knowledgeable and he was totally devoted to just us for the next couple of hours.
The rolling hills, amazing scenery, white sand surf beaches, narrow winding roads and totally not what we expected! I expected a more barren, rugged coastal flat peninsular in its entirety. That it was not! Stunningly beautiful and when we got to a remote, rugged beach I was even more happy. We walked about a kilometre along the beach , checking out all the nooks and cranies in the cliffs and rocks, trying to sight the yellow eyed penguin. It was a bit early for their return from the ocean, but we could see their web prints where they had left to go fishing in the morning.

And then ...... Is it a rock, is it a sea lion? It is a big NZ fur seal, in fact two of them, lolling around in the rocks and on the beach. They are really huge, much bigger than I thought. They didn't care about us at all. Great Experience! A leisurely late afternoon drive bck to Dunedin after a full, but amazing day! Time for wine!

To see photos well, choose the slide show at the bottom of this entry, then click to go to full screen. Then you can appreciate the photos