Very Windy day - Blogabond

May 17
We headed down to Dunedin and the Otago Penninsula. To get to the end of the penninsula we had to wind our way along a road which was next to the edge of the sea, so close in fact that the waves were lapping onto the road carrying with it sea weed and sending salty spray all over our van - good fun though! We got to the end to the much awaited Albatross centre. However, it was too much for our budget mostly because all you are going to get to see are birds which, ok, are a bit bigger than other sea birds, But at the end of the day they are just birds! We tried to get a sneaky peek around the corner but had built a big wall out over the cliff, obviously others had tried this before and felt the same way about the cost of getting in.
Instead we decided to find our way down to a secluded bay which held the possibility of seeing some Sea Lions. After negotiating quite a few kms of dirt tracks in our not-off road campervan we found signs for our bay, as the road ran out. It was blowing a gouly outside, all weather protected we headed out over a field. As we went over the sand dune and down onto the beach the wind was really starting to pick up, the waves were kind of being blown backwards and a constant sand storm was blowing across the beach. We kind of knew that no Sea Lions in their right mind would be there, but we had to have a look to make sure. We headed off down the beach, with our anoraks blowing madly in the wind, only to find when the wind died the waves took that chance to come all the way up the beach, leaving us scrambling up the cliff side to safety!

Run for your lives!

After a retreat back along the beach, battling against the winds/sand storm/timing between the waves, we made it to the tranquil environment of our van.

We headed into town to have a look around, only to find that parking is restricted to 5 or 10 mins and all of the pay and display multi storeys don't have any where near enough clearance for our 2.7m van. So we decided to make tracks out of town to find ourselves a free picnic spot to camp for the night. On our way out we spotted a Fish and Chip shop, which of course is where we got a cheap feed.

written by

James & Tracey on May 17, 2007 from Dunedin, New Zealand

from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour

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