Sandfly Bay

Another beautiful sunny day. Left Arrowtown and made a quick stop at the Kawarau bridge to try and see some bungy jumping, but looked like they were only just starting to set up - and no jumpers yet - so we carried on towards Dunedin. Yet more beautiful (though much gentler) scenery on the way. Had lunch along the way by the side of the road, and made it into central Dunedin by 1:30pm. Found our hostel, 'Hogwartz' (cheesy name, but nice hostel and another very helpful owner, who gave us loads of local info) and checked in.

Went for a coffee down in the Octagon, and made use of the free WiFi there. Checked my emails and found one from my friend Lizzie telling us she'd had her baby - another boy; James. Lovely news!

Wandered down to the railway station to get soe photos - v beautiful old building - then popped into Countdown for some milk. Back to the room and rested + read for a while, then out again (by car this time - the roads are so steep!) to get some dinner. Ended up at a cheap Japanese place on George Street and had a tasty noodly dinner.

Afterwards, we drove over to the Otago Peninsular, to find Sanfly Bay, which the hostel owner had told us about (there's a hide there for viewing Yellow-eyed penguins - 'Hoiho'). Absolutely beautiful evening, but we got there a bit late and without enough gear (it was quite a steep walk down to the beach and incredibly windy, so walking boots and extra layers would have been a good plan - and a head torch for the way back), so we decided that we would stay a second night in Dunedin and come back a bit earlier and a bit better prepared tomorrow.

Looked down onto the beach for a while - amazing to see the sand being whipped up and blown along by the wind (hence the name - Sandfly).

Drove back into Dunedin - with beautiful views over the harbour - and had a quiet evening in our room, reading and relaxing. Lovely!