Day 16 – 17 (February 12 – 13) – Clay Cliffs, Oamaru, Moeraki Boulders, Katiki-Point

Day 16

In the morning, we had a leisurely breakfast at Lake Pukaki (First time we had a few clouds here.). Then we continued our journey in the afternoon (as always, we leave at this time because everything takes longer with the kids and now we sleep until at least 9am). First stop is at the Clay Cliffs near Omarama. These are sharp sandstone cliffs and beautiful to look at.

Then we continue to Oamaru, back to the east coast.

Oamaru is a beautiful little harbor town. We walked through the harbor street with old warehouses. As we approached an old train, we were approached by a local who told us something about this train and then invited us into a hall with even more old trains. Here, old trains are lovingly restored and then used for tours. We and especially Mattis were very excited about the stories of the man. We were even allowed to explore wagons from 1904 and 1924 from the inside.

At the harbor, there was a fantastic playground (steampunk playground), where someone was working with a lot of creativity. The swing was particularly great.

For dinner, we went to a brewery right next door (Brewery). We could sit outside with chill music and eat loaded fries (fries topped with pulled pork, barbecue sauce, and cheese). Super delicious. Mattis, of course, thought our loaded fries were much better than his "plain" fries. A true gourmet.

Afterwards, we went to the fishing pier at the harbor and who was lying there on the rocks - a seal. But since this place is known for its blue penguins (the smallest penguins in the world), we wanted to see them. They are supposed to come ashore from the sea at dusk. So we kept watch at the harbor and went where most people were. Unfortunately, the penguins came ashore where you could only enter with a paid tour. But from a distance, we could at least see the little penguins a bit. At 10pm, we finally drove to our sleeping spot, a free parking lot (Eden Street Car Park) in the city (not nice, but we only wanted to sleep here.)

Day 17

Next to the car park, there was a bakery where everything is baked by "nice housewives" (as Tim described them). Here, too, there was only toast, but homemade and really delicious. And 2 delicious raspberry muffins. But we had breakfast in a parking lot right at the harbor and enjoyed the sunrays in the harbor.

Afterwards, we took a walk through the city to the swimming pool (Waitaki Aquatic Centre). There are many cute and individual small shops and cafes here, and the old white limestone buildings are beautiful to look at. I came up with the idea of the swimming pool when we were looking for the next possible shower. That can be combined so well. For only $8 ($4.70 for the 4 of us; Mattis and Lea were free), you got unlimited access to a lap pool, a children's pool with different areas, and a whirlpool. There was even a family changing room with a shower and toilet. Someone really thought of everything.

We all enjoyed it very much and decided to go to the swimming pool more often in New Zealand.

When we got hungry in the afternoon, we went to a nice cafe ("Steam") and had super delicious calzones and Mattis had a chocolate cake. That was a nice conclusion in this city before we continued along the coast towards the south.

Next stop were the Moeraki Boulders, huge 60 million year old spherical stones on the beach. I immediately thought of dinosaur eggs. It's crazy that these stones just lie around on the beach and are supposed to be so old.

The next highlight was Katiki-Point just a few kilometers away, where you can see fur seals and yellow-eyed penguins. And indeed, from the cliffs, we could see 2 yellow-eyed penguins as well as small and large seals. What luck. The penguins were cuddling sweetly with each other. The seals were everywhere on the rocks, and the little baby seals were climbing along the rocks. We also met some seals chilling on the grass. Wonderful. When we approached them, they hopped down the rocks towards the sea in a funny way. Mattis especially liked that.

Just 10 minutes away from here, we found a freedom campground (Katiki Beach Roadside) under trees, right between the sea and the highway. It was quite nice and also practical for sleeping, as we wanted to continue on the highway towards Dunedin the next day. But I didn't sleep too well at night because the passing cars bothered me a bit.