Day 27 - Heading South

Wednesday, October 30th

This morning we caught a coach heading south and along the east coast to Dunedin. It was a beautiful trip lasting about 6 hours.

As we journeyed south, the landscape began to change from the flat area around Christchurch to fertile crops of yellow canola in bloom, barley, hay and, what appeared to be, chick peas and soybeans. There were rolling hills of grazing sheep with their spring lambs romping through the fields or standing with their noses buried in the grass or nuzzled into their mothers. There were cattle with their calves. The highway was lined with native cabbage trees and horse chestnuts, both in bloom. There was also the gold and yellow of the gorse and broome. The beautiful sandy beaches of the South Pacific Ocean to our left contrasted to the southern alps in the distance on our right - some still snow-capped. The further south we travelled, the more it looked like Scotland! We even passed a St. Andrews Golf club!

                                         

We arrived at Dunedin in the early afternoon with plenty of time to explore. Dunedin has an octagon-shaped city square - a very interesting and exciting area. We visited the art gallery, a few of the NZ shops and went to the visitor's centre where we booked a couple of tours for tomorrow. Cadbury's chocolate factory is here, as is Speights Brewery. We decided to end our day with a tour of the brewery and dinner at Speights Ale House. It was a good decision!