Otago Peninsula

Yesterday we spent the day out on the Otago peninsula which, apart from being known as the place where I lived for quite a few years in my earlier days, is also home to some wonderful wildlife and some beautiful gardens - not to mention the only castle in New Zealand. We started the day out there with a leisurely drive right out to the heads where we had some morning tea with the seals - that's right folks we sat directly on the sand and rocks without our picnic sheet.... only my husband seemed a little worried by this!
After that we went to the albatross colony where I was really impressed by their helpfulness. Unlike our experiences in Christchurch there was plenty of information in Japanese and they also provided an electric cart and a helper for my mother-in-law to help her up the steep hill. Although there were no albatross flying we did see a couple of glimpses of some chicks that the parents were sitting on.
A trip to Larnach Castle finished off the day - well for the old folks anyway. My husband and I then took the children for a hike down to a wonderful place called Tunnel Beach. It is very close to the city (if you don't count the long hike down and the even longer hike up....) and the scenery is great. A really nice way to finish off the Japanese side of the trip.
My husband and his parents headed back to Christchurch today for their flight home tomorrow. We will now try to settle into some routines here.... school starts on Thursday!