Oamaru to Dunedin

We left the slighty noisy Motel outside of town and headed into the main part to take some photographs. The previous evening, whilst looking for somewhere to eat, we saw that many of the buildings seemed quite old but that in recent years the facias have been ruined by putting roofing with advertising hoardings halfway up the building. It's such a shame that many towns do this, perhaps it's to keep off the sun or rain but it does not look good. By using some of the older buildings and keeping them clean and tidy I am sure the town's appearance would be greatly improved.
Having got that off my chest, we headed out of town via the beach road for about 30 kilometers through the rolling countryside by the sea. During this time the clouds were rolling in.


See above what I mean about the buildings

We finally made it to the main road between Dunedin and Christchurch and headed south. We stopped to look at the Moeraki Boulders which are shaped like large rock balls, sorry for the expression.
There were quite a few of the 'balls' and originally it was thought by the Maoris that they were food baskets washed ashore after a vessel sank, but this is incorrect as they are in the rock cliffs and are revealed as the rock is worn down by the constant pounding from the sea. It was quite an interesting site and worth the visit.


No obvious comments please

Following this we headed South and the rain arrived, the first rain for months in this part of the South Island and in some towns there are water restrictions. So after a quick lunch, we arrived in Dunedin mid afternoon whilst it was still raining. We took a long walk around town in the rain, to wet to take photos, and noticed a Hoyt's Cinema with a good choice of films. So following dinner in a very nice fish restaurant we headed back to the cinema to see 'Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street'. It was a good film but with lots of BLOOD spurting from his victims before they were minced up and put in to pies! Uhh ,Pukka Pies eat you heart out!
We walked back to our Motel which is close to the centre of town and watched the boy racers with beaten up Ford Escorts and similar trying to impress the opposite sex without getting picked up by the ever present Police.
The Rugby '7's are due to start in Wellington on Saturday and in our restaurant there were a number of groups who were obviously getting ready for the event.
Interestingly enough, when driving to Dunedin there were some adverts on the radio citing how the 'Barmy Army' from UK will be taken to the cleaners when they arrive for their games!! Sounds like we have friends here.