2. After the island experience, which was completely devoid of these so-called “ubiquitous” kiwis- ugh!  we decided our feet needed some time to heal, so we drove over to Dunedin and the otago peninsula for a day.  Cool things we saw included:

-       sea lions just hanging out on the beach

-       royal albatross flying around

-       an aquarium with pregnant sea horses and many varieties of small sharks

-       a 1000 year-old matai tree

-       and we didn’t pay $25 to see some castle, but saw a picture later and decided it looked lame anyways

-       and we jumped on a free trampoline in the botanic gardens

The next day, we went to the Otago Museum in Dunners, which is a pretty cool city, and saw prehistoric fossils.  Like a ginourmous pleiosaurus, the largest fossil found in new Zealand, a giant moonfish, and ancestors to penguins and whales and dolphins.  It was a highlight.

3.  We skipped the Cadbury factory (dang it!), and drove through the catlins again, camped on the beach again, stopped off at some 60 million year old lava boulders, and played in them, saw some more penguins coming in to tend to their nests, more sea lions lounging on beaches, more spectacular sunsets; typical day in the life.

i felt the need to pretend i was a dinosaur being borne from the rocks.  i think it had something to do with all the fossils... (we talk about dinos and sharks a lot)

ash was overhwlelmed