Dunedin to Gore

Our first stop on our way to Gore from Dunedin was 

to visit Nugget Point a beautiful lighthouse on the 

southeast coast of New Zealand

The map below shows the trek from the 

carpark to the lighthouse, about 1/2 mile

Here you can see the trail to the lighthouse

Quite a nice setting

Here with are with Elder & Sister Chesley who are serving in Gore

Of course there were seals at the base of the mountain

The birds below are two Spoonbills nesting...see the large black bills



Our next stop driving from Dunedin to Gore 
was at Purakaunui Falls.

We'd seen this young lady by herself at Nugget Point
and then there she was  at the falls.
We asked her to join in the picture.

A brief stop at Florance Hill Lookout - quite a beautiful setting!

We could make out this surfer way down in the waves

On to McLean Falls 

This was about a 20 minute tramp into 

the falls but well worth the trip.

After McLean Falls we drove back

 to the coast for a visit to Porpoise Bay.  

A real treat was in store for us here.

Here's a view of the Bay

There are always fishermen/women on the rocks

We didn't count on seeing any penguins but sure enough, 
in the rocks below we spotted 3 or 4 of them 

We then found ourselves on the way to Gore where

we would stay with Elder & Sister Chesley for the

night and strike off for Oamaru the next morning.

There was lots to see in Gore as shown below:

The towns of Gore and Clinton amuse the average tourist

These sheep posed a slight problem but only momentary

Gore is known as the fly fishing capital of the world.

The river below is packed with brown trout.

Gore is New Zealand's Country Music Capital

Gore to Oamaru

After leaving Gore, we headed north towards Alexandria.
We saw a number of old building and found this old shearing site.
It is supposedly the oldest in New Zealand at Miller's Crossing.

  

Down the road we found this old water tower
 next to the train tracks

All of this was along a beautiful river with deep bluegreen water

We crossed at the site of this old bridge abutment

Next on our trip was a stop at one of the main attractions of the

southeast coast of New Zealand, the Moeraki Boulders.  Where 

in the world did this almost perfectly round stones come from?

After visiting the "Boulders" we went on to 

Oamaru to spend the night.  It's a quaint little town that

 was fun to visit.  We were in for another surprise.

Here's the town of Oamaru with it's bay

Getting up early in the morning produced some 
beautiful sunrise photos

Driving around to get some good photos I came 

across an outlook and took these two photos

Looking closely at the beach above I noticed some movement

 and zoomed in to find these three penguins on their way

These two continued towards the water & the third stayed behind

I was bummed because I'd left Ann back asleep at the motel

so I quickly jumped into the car and went to get her.  

We returned  quickly to still see the one hanging back.

It wasn't long and across the beach he tramped

Then to the edge of the water and in he went