Monday 9 March

Had a wonderful sleep from 9 until just after midnight - I thought it was morning! Managed to drop off a few more times but ended up getting up at 6 and checking out morning TV before having breakfast and coffee. The hotels have 'plunger' coffee pots and free coffee so it's nice and easy. We sorted ourselves out and left town about 8:30. We found state highway #1 and headed south to Dunedin. The highway wasn't too busy but it also wasn't what we expected. Basically one lane each direction with occasional passing lanes. Very pretty scenery and very flat for the first couple of hours. We drove through small communities and lots of farmland. Didn't see many sheep but lots of cows. We stopped at a small tea shop for coffee and a loo about 11. The southern alps were on our right side for a while and looked really nice. We crossed several dried up rivers, before reaching Timaru where we got our first look at the sea on our left side. What lovely shades of blue and turquoise it was. The scenery started to change and became hillier. We stopped at Moeraki to walk on the beach and see the mysterious spherical boulders, which are around 60 million years old. They were created by a process similar to the formation of oyster pearls. How nice it was to smell the sea and walk on the sand. We continued on and arrived in Dunedin about 3:30, we parked the car and walked to the Flemish-style railway station with mosaic tiled floors and stained glass windows - quite the place. We then had a walk around the octagonal city centre and a few shops. It is a pretty town, founded by Scots, our motel for the next two nights is located quite near the university so lots of young people and cheap restaurants. We found a sports bar called The Baa, where we had a beer and a lamb hotpot, not like any hotpot I've had before, it was a tasty lamb stew with a puff pastry top. That was it for today, back to the motel to put our feet up for a while.