After we left the Otago Peninsula, we drove through Dunedin and then headed north up the Otago Coastline.

We stopped to photograph a memorial to Sir John McKenzie which was erected on Mt.Puketapu. He won the affection of small farmers for his efforts in making farmland available to them. I found an aerial photo of the memorial online to include in today's blog; it's a much better view.

Then we stopped at Shag Point which is a special place for three reasons. First, it is an ideal place to see wildlife. We saw many fur seals on the smooth rocks. They were very active, having a great time scampering around. They are amazingly agile as they climb up the rocks.

The second reason is that a plesiosaur, the largest marine reptile dinosaur, was discovered here. It was nearly a complete skeleton, and it is now at the Otago Museum.

And third,whalers first discovered bituminous coal in NZ here in the 1830s. By 1862, the coal was being mined through shafts that extended under the coast. They went down to a depth of 405 feet and from there extended drives1050 feet under the sea. I can't imagine how scary that must have been for the miners. It was mined until 1972 when flooding closed the shafts.

We checked into our campground at Moeraki Village. Then we drove on a gravel road to a lighthouse point which is good for seal and penguin viewing. We enjoyed hiking out to the point and watching the wildlife. The yellow-eyed penguins look pretty pitiful as they are molting.

Then we dressed up for our nicest dinner on this trip. We went to Fleur’s Place, which is "world famous", as they say. It is a quirky waterfront restaurant that serves fish caught the same day by local fishermen. This seems an out-of-the-way place for a fine restaurant, but reservations are essential, and it was very busy. The food was excellent.

We are back at our campsite in Moeraki Village, and we can hear the waves. Very conducive to sleeping.