Now it was time to start making our way northwards up the east coast. We had terrible rain so the drive to the city of Dunedin was pretty grey. Dunedin is a great little city it has a big student population and lots of buildings that wouldn't look out of place in the UK (neither would the weather!)

We spent a few days exploring the city, the city centre has an area called the Octagon with some grand buildings and cafes around. We went to the Otago museum twice, it was free entry and had some really interesting displays (we must be getting old!!). We visited the art gallery and Kam got told off for touching something, oops. Tom and Bea were also on the same caravan park as us so we got to hang out with them in the evening.

The best part of the Dunedin area was the Otago peninsula, where it is the only mainland place in the world where the massive seabird, the Albatross will nest - they usually nest out on remote islands far out at sea. We went to the Albatross centre and found out that there were chicks there, of course you had to pay quite a lot to go in the hide to see them. We thought where else are we going to have this opportunity so we paid and we were the only two on the hourly tour so we got a guide all to ourselves. We watched a dvd about how they nest and survive out at sea. There was a life size model of an adult male with its wings out- it was longer than me - they are so huge! Then we got to go out and walked up a steep hill into a hide where we could see these lovely fluffy but huge chicks just chilling out! Then some adult albatross swooped in, it was a magnificent sight, they circled for a while. We got to watch them for about 15 minutes and then had to go back to the centre, on the way back one flew over our heads so I looked up quickly and didn't realise that I lost my glasses! They flew into a hedge and were found the next day! We sat in our van and ate lunch and could still see the Albatross flying around. Everyone was just staring at them. We then drove to sandfly bay which jutted out to the south and was absoloutly freezing and windy but lovely. The albatross was again one of the many hilights of our trip!!