Brrrr! It was very cold overnight in Invercargill so we got up early, had hot showers to warm us up, ate breakfast, and headed out on the highway to Dunedin. Jean suggested we take Hwy 93 to bypass Gore. It turned out to be a great suggestion. The countryside was so pastoral, we kept stopping to marvel at the beautiful countryside. We eventually left the highway when we turned to go into Balclutha, a product of the gold rush and on the Clutha River, the largest river by volume in NZ. We stopped for a snack there and the waitress said oh are you from Canada? This was a surprise as most ask if we are from the USA. We got to Dunedin by lunchtime and were lucky enough to book a tour for 1pm to go out onto Otaga Peninsula to see yellow eyed penguins at their nesting area. There is a strong private conservation effort by a farmer who discovered these very endangered species were nesting on the ocean front of his farm. He has consciously planted trees and bushes to provide them protection and has built nesting boxes for them to nest in. Get this, the oldest nesting pair on the site are called Doug and Donna! The farmer constructed blind trenches to allow people to approach the nesting. This allows people to get close without disturbing them and all the money raised goes towards the protection of these penguins. The next part of the trip was to take a boat out around Taiaroa Head where we were inundated with sightings of seals, hector dolphins, northern royal albatross, sea lions, Stewart island shags, little shags, royal spoonbills, black backed gulls, variable oyster catchers, blue penguins, spotted shags, northern giant petrels, and white capped albatross. At the end of an hour of this, we were treated to a 1.5 hour boat cruise back into the Dunedin Harbour. An enormously interesting day! The campground here is very interesting. They created the campground with small maggots in mind. Now, when the bigger maggots come in, it is funny to watch all the parked maggot owners watching carefully to ensure their maggots are not hit! Well, to bed now. We are going to explore downtown Dunedin tomorrow as there are so many magnificent buildings to see and a number of museums. Jos,I will call tomorrow to Robert. Sorry for the lack of good pictures. Have lots on the regular camera. Forgot to take them for the iPad