Omaru then.

Well the only reason we came here was to feed Rhiannon's obsession with penguins which we did thoroughly. That's really the only reason that I can think of to come here by the way so if you don't like them i'd skip it. Omaru is a feeding ground for both yellow eyed and blue eyed penguins who come in from the sea every night to nest, sleep and make baby penguins. The yellow eyed ones were alright but we only saw a couple and only one of them came close up, although the pesky thing refused to look up at the camera when it was supposed to so the phot is of it's back.

The blue eyed peguins, however are where it is at. They have built a big viewing area to watch the little blighters come out of the sea. I forgot to add that they are the smallest penguins in the world so bless them eh. Anyway we all filed into a viewing area and waited for the sun to drop and then by the gift of lighting that is beyond their visual spectrum we get to see them slowly but surely clamber up the hill, pause at the road and then in a group all waddle over at double quick time to their homes on the other side. All in all about 90 came up. They then head into their homes, same one every night and then there is an unholy screaching kind of noise which I can only assume is penguin love noises.

Rhiannon loved the whole penguin experience and it is still one of her favourite things we've done. I think it's because she runs like a penguin herself.

Next morning it is off to Dunedin and a big city again, also the furthest south we are going to go having decided not to risk going to visit the hairy knuckled in-breds of Invercargill. Not that Dunedin lacks for it's oddballs and twelve toed members of society. The city has an interesting mix of inhabitants really, there are plenty of toothless simpletons roaming the streets chattering to themselves about cars being in the road when they are trying to walk there. The city is were most Scottish people settled in the early days which may explain a lot. There is also a very big university here so the other half of the city seems to be given over to students, the universtity looks really good to be honest, we walked past it on our travels and no-one seemed to be doing any studying which sounds like a good one to me.

We went to the museum (yes a bit of culture) which was excellent, there were big sea serpent skeletons and lots of stuff about the history and shaping of the country of New Zealand. All very interesting. Oh and there were several dummies which for those who don't know is one of the things Rhiannon is most scared of (really - like the ones in Madame Tussards, honestly), so I had to walk around each corner first to check there wasn't a dummy of a man carving an early stone tool or something and if there was I had to hold her hand as she skirted past it.

The main other thing to mention is we went to a studently type cafe/bar which was really good, but happened to have an open mike night. The hilight being some guy who must have been in his fifties getting up and playing the kind of keyboard techno stuff that was a little popular in the 80s. He was well into it aswell, for those that remember Ross play keyboard in friends, it was like that only the guy looked like your history teacher.

I felt a bit sorry for him as there were only ten people in there by the time hed finished and that included us, staff and his friends who did at least clap as he came off stage (eventually) with a beaming smile on his face like a five year old who just won the running race at sports day. "That's my first time up there aswell" I heard him tell his obviously tone deaf friends who touchingly told him he was really good despite all evidence to the contrary. Maybe he is good in Dunedin, to be fair I have no other local telent to comapre him to.

Anyway, in-breds and three thumbed keyboard players apart I liked Dunedin a lot, I wouldn't like to live there now probably but it would be a good place to be a student I reckon. After two and half days we were out of there and on the way to Te Anau the base for the Milford Sounds.