Another beautiful day in New Zealand, our last sadly, what a great country! We just love it here. Today we are renting a car to drive around the Otago Peninsula for a couple hours, then heading into town for a brewery tour – and of course Cadbury! Landscape, beer and chocolate. Perfect day!
We debate taking the local bus from Port Chalmers which is about 20 minutes from town. In the end we opt for the ship’s shuttle simply because the last local bus we can catch to Port Chalmers is an odd time and we’re a little worried about missing it – which would be so not good since we have 3 days of sailing until Sydney next!
So – we buy tickets for the first shuttle and present ourselves outside at 7:00 – a little early, but better than late. The “shuttle hosts” (locals organizing the buses) are adorable – the nicest, funniest folks! Totally personable, talkative, full of info. Our bus driver hops on while we’re waiting for a full load (ha! there are 4 of us sitting there for a long time!) and talks up a storm. Telling us about the area, the weather, how great it is, giving us directions, etc. He’s really great. Finally we get maybe 7 people on the bus and nobody else is coming, so the gal who put us on the bus tells us to go because she feels bad we’ve been waiting for so long. Nice!
We get into town by 8 – then have to find the rental agency. It’s on Wharf street which is the other side of the railroad tracks. We’re thinking it could be a bit challenging to get across the tracks – but we find a pedestrian bridge behind the railway station that deposits us on the street we need and hoof it down to Hertz. The rental agency is way further than we expected, but it’s a nice morning, so this replaces the gym!
We get to Hertz , get our car and are on the road pretty quickly—probably the quickest we have ever hired a car. The Hertz office happens to be right on the road to the peninsula, so it’s a quick left turn out of the lot and we are off. Cool!
It only takes about 30-45 minutes to the furthest point of the Otago peninsula where the Albatross habitat is located, so we take our time winding around the narrow little 2 lane road – right on the water. And I mean RIGHT on the water – Ed is in his zone again, thankfully, because one little drift and you are IN the water. A bit stressful…but beautiful!
The road wends through little villages, past fishing houses on the sound and spectacular water views. We are driving across the bay from Dunedin, and we go so far that we come past Port Chalmers and our ship across the water!
This really reminds us of Norway – the water, the landscape – and especially the little fishing houses on the water. It’s very Nordic like – except the weather isn’t Nordic at all – it’s that perfectly comfortable temperature with a few little wispy clouds in the distance.
We continue on up the side of the hills, going further and further up on narrower and narrower roads. The view is awesome, the driving, not so much!
We make it to the Albatross habitat, which doesn’t open until 10:30 with the first tour at 11:00. Well – we hadn’t planned on this any way – so no loss. We wander down a pathway to the water – to see if 
On the coast, the view is stunning – no Albatross, not that we can see anyway, but the coastline is worth the walk. It’s rocky, craggy walls rise up out of the water, towering over us – you can just imagine the force of the water when it gets rough and how it has shaped this part of the area with its fury.
As we head back to the car I get seriously freaked out over those seagulls. They are screaming at me as I walk by – like a mean, nasty scream that follows me in waves. All I can think about is the movie “The Birds” – and I just freak. I almost run up the darn hill, leaving Ed in the dust behind me! That bird scream is still in my head! Ack! For the first time I can honestly say I understand my Mom’s bird phobia!
Safely back in the car, heart rate back to normal, we proceed back the way we came to Portobello, where we’ll leave the coast and make the loop on the “high” road back to Dunedin. Since it is so early, we stop at the Penguin Café in Portobello for a cappuccino so we can enjoy the great weather as well as burn off some time. It’s quiet and the view is great – sitting a little above the cross road of Highcliff and Portobello roads.
Sitting outside in the sun, enjoying our coffees, we watched as a couple of girls put their horses through some sort of training – they were reining them around on the pavement, then took them out into the shallow water for some reason. Interesting to watch even if we hadn’t a clue as to what they were doing!
After coffee, we head inland up the steep hill that is Highcliff road. Windy, narrow, 2 lanes, but fabulous views! We are so glad we decided to come back this way as the views are entirely different – more rolling grazing land, with the coast in the distance.
Around one corner we pass these scary trees – they are all lined up in a row, like they are waiting to reach out and grab you. The picture doesn’t give you a good feel for it, but the trunks of the trees are right over the road, and as you come past them, they just seem scary, spooky, sort of alive. Harry Potter Whomping Willow-like! Driving here at dusk would be really creepy!
Further on we pass the sheep! sheep, sheep and more sheep! Some of them “hamming” it up (or I guess I should say “mutton-ing” it up) for the camera.
Great circle the peninsula drive! We drop the car back at Hertz around 10:30 (we’re their shortest rental for sure – only 2 hours and 40 minutes! But so worth it!) and head back into town to Speight’s for our Brewery tour.
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