Marc & Nora ROUND THE WORLD 2005/2006 - Join us!

Staying true to it's Scottish roots it was pissing down when we arrived in Dunedin so the thought of exploring this place didn't seem too appealing. But despite the shocking weather Dunedin is actually quite a nice looking town. With a lot of money coming into the city from the gold mines (In 1870 Dunedin was actually unchallenged as New Zealand's largest and richest city) it has lots of impressive and 'big' looking buildings which you would expect. After more rain and another rainy night we set of in the rain and headed south towards the rainy Catlins region.

As we headed away from the City we actually spotted blue sky! We both believed at first that it must simply be some kind of hallcination due to the tremendous amount of rain which our bodies had absorbed over the past week but as we drove on the clouds parted and out came the sun! HALLELUJAH!!!!.... HALLELUJAH!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!!

The catlins is an area along the southern-most coast of South Island, New Zealand which is famous for its rugged coastline and forests.

the yellow-eyed penguin as well as the hector dolphin can be found here.

We were very lucky to see them both. The yellow-eyed penguin can be seen just after dusk or at dawn. We didnt plan to stay for either of the two so we didnt account to see one. however, there was one little penguin that must have lost its sense of time as it swam to the shore and hopped up the hill to its nest...

The Hector's dolphin is the rarest dolphin in the world - it is also the smallest species of dolphin!

It was named after Sir James Hector who was the most influential New Zealand scientist of his time (he lived from 1834 to 1907)

there are about 3000 south island hector´s dolphins and at one particular bay in the catlins there are about 20 resident ones which swim just a few meters away from the beach - and we spotted them!

Further down the coast we also visited the Moeraki boulders that lie on a short stretch of the beach.