Ready for adrenalin & white mountains after penguin failure

After spending a lot of hours driving to and couple of nights sleeping in Dunedin, we are now in Queenstown for the final three days of our midsemester travelling. Here we'll go hiking to Ben Lomond, an 8-10 hrs tramp which pretty much about climbing straight upwards to get a nice view of Queenstown and its surroundings. What we'll do the last day is yet to see, but bungee jumping, river sledging, skydiving are some of the opportunities! :)

Dunedin was supposed to be the ecological peak of the trip - we had made major plans to see sealions, penguins, albatrosses and seals - all of which Dunedin is famous for. But unfortunately, the weather gods were in a really baaaaad mood - we had snow and gusty winds through the entire stay. And when the weather is bad, none of the animals come ashore. So all we ended up seeing was a lonely (but indeed cute!) yellow-eyed penguin taking shelter in the forest from the horrible weather. But at least we got to stay at a really cool backpacker - The Bus-Stop. And, as the name suggests, a bus is what you get when you order a double room at this place. Phil & Isabella, the managers of the place, have transformed a bus from the 50s into a cozy unit. So as the weather was just awful, we spent our time in the bus in front of the woodfired oven.

On this picture, there actually is a penguin - the only one we saw during our stay in Dunedin! Can you spot him?

Christian scouting for penguins and other sea creatures on Victoria Beach

Victoria beach is quite beautiful - with or without sea lions

Mari in front of the Dunedin church, praying for nice weather and cute penguins

An "I was in Dunedin"- pic

Chillin' out inside our bus

This is where we slept while in Dunedin! Cool, or what?

Mari about to conclude that her prayers were a waste - no sea lions, penguins or albatrosses ever made it to the beach during the horrible weather.