Moeraki Boulders and Dunedin (New Zealand)
The trip from Mount Cook takes 3h30 – 4h (I don’t remember), for more than 250km. I’m the one driving, in the rain so I don’t go super fast. In New Zealand, there are so few people on the road that even a public danger like me can drive (on the left) without any problem.
When I see someone speeding towards me, I take advantage of numerous stops/point left views to stop and let the person pass me.
Moeraki BouldersWe
arrive at Moeraki Boulders in rain and wind. They are balls dating back to the dinosaur era. Are they fossilized dinosaur eggs? Or just fossilized rocks? Nobody knows.
There are “broken” balls, these pieces are still on the beach so we can have a very clear idea of what is hidden in these balls. I think it looks strangely like eggs, I don’t know what you think.
The balls are concentrated on 100 meters while the beach (very beautiful) is several km long. If the weather is a bit better, I would have liked to have a little coffee at the bar at the top of the cliff, I hear that dolphins come here every day.
JB finds that the stop is of very average interest whereas I added it in the itinerary, resulting in a huge detour to the South… partly for that.
Slope Point
We go to Slope Point to see balls that look like Moeraki Boulders, but in a cracked version or open at the top, creating natural pools. Unfortunately, these balls are only visible at low tide and we completely missed it.
It’s not too serious, on the way, a food truck makes an eye at us and I validate at 100% the green mussels (gigantic) that the saleswoman hands me (12$NZ). The seagulls seem to be of the same opinion because they turn around our car by ten.
It is still early so we decide to go to a campsite a little less touristic to pay less. After 2 nights in campsites of the DOC, with the summary comfort, we are happy to have a real kitchen and a good hot shower (1$NZ) here.
DunedinThe
next day, direction Dunedin, where we discover a super nice city with Scottish architecture. The side Disneyland all beautiful all clean seems to be the trademark of New Zealand because everywhere we go, we find the same architectural harmony, the same cleanliness.
We start the tour with Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world (35 degrees of incline). We aren’t allowed to go up by car, “no exit no turn”, moreover, seeing a local resident going up the street with a lot of difficulty, on board of a 4×4, we just park our van down and go up on foot.
So what is the point of such a steep street? Apparently, the plans for the city were drawn up… in London (when New Zealand still belonged to England). And those people, having never set foot in Dunedin, didn’t know that there was a big hill at that location.
Our efforts are rewarded with a bench with nice graffiti and a tap distributing fresh drinking water. Now all we have to do is go down some small steps to the bottom.
We pass in front of the train station of the city, very famous for its architecture…
Harrington Point
…before taking the road to Harrington Point, where we can see a lot of albatrosses. There are a lot of excursions in the area but when we take none, the interest of this 40km path is just the road along the bay, very close to the water.
And nice picnic spots with a beautiful view. By the way, that’s exactly what we did: lunch at the water’s edge, in the company of seagulls.
Tunnel BeachWe
start from Dunedin, without forgetting to make a stop at the Tunnel Beach.
The round trip from the parking lot takes only one hour, but in reality, it is so nice that it took us 1h30. Several people reported robberies at the carpark so we chose to park just in front of the ice cream shop.
The road is pleasant, we first see the cliffs, before discovering a small passage dug with dynamite by a millionaire (thanks to him), to reach the famous beach.
That’s it for this part of the country, we are back on our way to The Cathlins