We were woken by the bright sun shining through the skylight and first looked out of the bedroom window. Wow! Wow! Wow! All the cloud had lifted and the snow covered Mount Cooke was revealed across the lake. All this to ourselves - we are so remote and not seen another person. A quick walk along the lake side before breakfast to try and take in all the views and then back on the road. Back along the unmade road, we hadn't realised how far we had travelled along this dusty uneven track but thankfully we were soon back on metalled road. The stunning views just kept coming as we headed through the lakes with frequent photo stops to take in the dramatic scenery. We continued our downhill route through Twizel a ski resort in winter, crossing numerous raging rivers with hydro powers stations positioned between lakes and eventually were back on the coast near Oamaru where we had a wander round and a coffee. Continuing on Highway 1 we stopped off qto see the Moeraki Boulders which were large spherical rocks which littered the beach and then onto Fleurs Place in the village of Moeraki. The owner Fleur Sullivan who we met and chatted with was a celebrity chef at one time and Rick Stein had visited her restaurant on a number of occasions. It was in a shabby shack right on the harbour front specialising in serving fish that had been caught that day! We had blue cod - it was delicious.

Our destination of Dunedin was then just an hour away so after a satisfying lunch we continued on the road to our site we had booked earlier in the day. After a couple of hours relaxing and catching up we headed out to the Otago Penisula, an hours drive along a twisty coast road right adjacent to the sea, it was quite spectacular with the sun shining across the harbour. Eventually we arrived at the Royal Albatross centre on the end of the Penisula which was the home of a colony of Royal Albatross which we could see flying around. However we had come to see penguins and fortunately were able to get on a tour as a coach of 50 people had cancelled twenty minutes earlier otherwise it would of been full. Whilst we waited for dusk, around 21.00 we cooked supper in the car park before returning to meet the guide at the said time. We were guided down steps to a platform overlooking a small beach and then waited. Firstly we could see the odd shape in the dark clambering across rocks but it wasn't long before we could see movement in the sea and large groups of Blue penguins waddled out of the water and up the beach towards us and there nesting area where many had got young, we could hear them. The Blue penguin is only 30 cm tall but we saw several hundred of them come marching up the beach passed us - it was an amazing sight to see. By now it was 22.15 so back to the site for some sleep
Distance travelled - 375km