Tag 151 - 154 'Kreuz und quer'

After a few days of recovering from the adrenaline kick of skydiving, we continued on our journey. We drive several hundred kilometers daily with no clear system. Always chasing the good weather.🤭

Our next destination was Dunedin, which is a popular student city and home to many bird species. It is also where you can find New Zealand's ONLY castle - Larnach Castle.

Our tour on day 152 started with the castle. It reminded me a lot of castles in England or Denmark, but it was the first for Falk. It is a family-owned castle that has been lovingly restored over the past few decades. From up here, you have a great view of Dunedin and the bay. The weather was great and inviting to stay. We continued towards the sea to look for yellow-eyed penguins and albatrosses. Unfortunately, that required 🤑 and neither of us wanted to spend money on 'birdies'. It was still a great drive. We then drove a bit further north. On day 153, the next highlight was supposed to be found there at low tide.

We quickly found a campground on the beach and listened to the sound of the ocean as we fell asleep because the alarm was set for day 153. Low tide was at 8:48 am. So we had to be on site promptly to see the next 'unexplained wonder'. We parked our car and walked along the beach when we saw many people around many stones from a distance. The Moeraki Boulders. These are round stones buried in the sand. They are simply lying on the beach and no one has a 100% explanation for their origin. Some of the boulders have already broken apart. Others look like sleeping turtles, and one looks like a cracked dinosaur egg. Each stone has its own story, yet many look the same. An extremely fascinating place. With many questions about the formation and origin of the boulders, we headed back south. We were advised to visit 'The Catlins' in this area. Unfortunately, we had our first bad luck with the weather on this trip and it was ☁️🌧🌫🌦. With this weather, we couldn't admire the Catlins. It was a cold, rainy day that we spent in our campground in the car.

On day 154, the weather cleared up and we had a lot of warmth in the morning, which made us more active. When you search for pictures of New Zealand's landscapes on the internet, you often see green hills and many sheep. The Catlins are a good example of that. Simply beautiful. Slope Point is the officially southernmost point (excluding Stewart Island). We took a short break and enjoyed the moment here. From here, it's not far to the South Pole. Unfortunately, the weather didn't hold up🌧 and after a short search, we found a place to spend the night and end our day.