B****y hell it was cold last night!! As we tossed and turned on our executive foam bed, hips honed to Asian beds and temperatures, the cold waftied under the covers like a hurricane. Lake McGregor bid us good morning and we took to the road eager for a bit of engine heat.
The day erupts quickly and we turned for the last view of our night spot.
Time now to explore Lake Tekapo and the hot springs, not natural but huge outdoor hot tubs overlooking the lake. To our disappointment the springs won't open for another hour and a half so we watch the lake go by for half an hour before setting off.
Our destination is the Otago Peninsula in Dunedin but on the way there is plenty of time to enjoy the amazing countryside
and stunning beaches.
The Moeraki Boulders lounging on Moeraki beach look like huddles of giant tortoises. Not your common boulder, these are concretions formed around a particle, similar to the pearl creation process. The particle in this case could have been a small fossil shell, bone fragment or scrap of wood. Formed from calcite, the seas's weathering effect causes the boulder to lose their outer layers leaving hard veins of crystallised calcite forming joined polygonal pieces.
These polygonal veins/shapes produce the tortoise shell pattern which eventually break up into individual polygonal pieces and the boulder is no more.
The Otago Peninsula nestles around the Otago harbour home to numerous bays, seabirds including Royal Albatross, Blue penguins and Yellow Eyed penguins. Driving round the peninsula we eventually find a free site to bed down for the evening which the local ducks don't seem to mind sharing.
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