The Ōtākou Peninsula

 Thursday, 9th January 2025

It was our last day in the South Island. Bags packed and random excess food things distributed to those bags with space. Battery containing things were moved into carry-on luggage - ready for the plane flight. Breakfast was tuna-melt inspired, but without any kind of glue, too much grated carrot and not enough cheese, so it was on the dry side. This just left some ham, cucumber and Corn Thins to make a lunch of some sort out on the road.

We quickly drove to Baldwin Street - the World’s Steepest Street - to test how quickly we could get up. It is steep! That was a tough walk up the road, but after a short rest at the seat at the top we carefully made our way back down, avoiding the occasional car that came racing past. 

To the peninsula, wrong turn into the port - should have been a gentle left, not a sharp left! Quick U-turn and then we were actually heading to the peninsula! It’s a lovely drive along the coast and we stopped at Portobello for a coffee and a look around. As you often do on the tourist loop, we spotted and chatted to a couple we had met on the Foveaux Strait ferry, and had subsequently bumped into several times in the last week.

The coffee interlude gave us enough of a delay for the Nicholson Art gallery to open. What a fascinating space, not only full of the artist’s original watercolours, but also a celebration of his sporting achievements from Olympic ice-skating to circumnavigating the world on a bicycle. He was entertaining to talk to and we discovered that he attended Lynfield College, where Jane teaches. Jonty finally built up the courage to purchase a watercolour of a Whio | Blue duck for his art collection and we left with a series of recommendations for what to do next. 

It was a lovely drive to the end of the peninsula, but getting out of the car we were bombarded by the sounds and smells of the thousands of gulls protected in the area. The racket was deafening and walking anywhere wasn’t particularly pleasant, but we found a great viewpoint of the Taiaroa Head and some of the seabird colonies. Lunch was eaten down in Pilots Beach, where we saw some sea lions, and then we popped into the Royal Albatross Centre to pass some time. After a coffee, we resumed our journey back. Turning just before we came back through Portobello, we headed to Allans Beach - a wildlife reserve famous for its sea lion population. We had a beautiful walk down the open beach until we came to the inlet, where we got some great photos of the sea lions interacting with each other. We were careful not to disturb them or put ourselves in danger and then returned to the car.

The trip back into Dunedin was relatively uneventful, and we refuelled the car and drove to the airport. There were no hassles returning the vehicle, the plane was a little early, and everything went very smoothly. On the flight home to Auckland it was beautiful watching the sunset. But sad saying goodbye to the long, long days.

What an awesome holiday!