Slowly dragged ourselves away from the campsite, eventually leaving at ~10.30. Popped into the supermarket to get a couple of thankyou bottles of wine for Ash & dropped them back at the campsite office. Said farewell to the mountains & fantastic view, & headed south east, towards the coast. Brief stop in Timaru to refuel the car, then an hour on the main road, south, before crossing the Waitaki River, and turning inland, towards Duntroon, & Vanished World.

Ate lunch in the sunshine on the bench outside, surrounded by geologic exhibits (huge bits of various types of stone, and a fossilized tree). Then in to the centre to buy books, look at the exhibits, and dig for fossils! Highlights were the giant toothed dolphin fossil, the rattling rocks (hollow rocks (concretions) with a small stone inside), the giant (prehistoric) penguin, and the excavation room - where you could dig sea shells out of chunks of local limestone (waste from the local quarry). M gravitated to this room almost immediately, & spent the whole time there - only to emerge at the end of our visit with a small collection of ancient sea shells, and covered in limestone dust!

J set about asking a thousand questions, which were patiently answered by the curator, a retired Brit, from Yorkshire. L&D also enjoyed his explanations, and learnt a lot about the local geology & prehistory of the area. He also pointed us towards a few local things to do (where to see the penguins for free!), and the vanished World Fossil Trail.

Eventually dragged the kids away, with promises of going fossil hunting, & set off to Elephant Rocks - fantastic shapes in the weathered & eroded exposed limestone, and also a film set! ("The Early Life of Christ" - not yet finished, but the village (?Nazareth) set has been built, & the project is on hold at present, with just enough funds to keep the set guarded and safe!) Then to Anatini Valley to see fossilized baleen whale bones, and yet another film location - Aslan's Camp, from the Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe! After that, a brief stop at Ngapara mill (built of local limestone), through Enfield (35 million year old lines of vertical basalt) and then to Oamaru.

Drove to the Top 10 park, but they wanted $90 for a cabin (their web site said $80), & there was no equipment to cook with, unless we wanted to pay another $10. Said no thanks, and drove on! Found the YHA that we stayed in last time, then tried to find the information centre (in the rain), & after a couple of wrong turns, discovered that it was closed! Needed cash, so parked, and D walked to find an ATM (unsuccessfully), & to check out the Empire Hotel BP's. $81 for a 3 bed room, plus M on a mattress on the floor - nice vibe to the place, 2 x living rooms & kitchens, friendly managers, free internet!

Kids played with daisy (the very small dog) while D cooked (baked spuds, beans & cheese). D&L chatted to Lauren, the new manager (from Canada) who was due to take over in a couple of days time - interesting to chat to someone with 2 years hostel management experience.

At 9pm, we walked to the shore, to watch the little blue penguins come ashore. Back to the room by 10.15, both kids very tired - put them straight to bed. D&L watched rubbish TV for a while, then turned in, too.