The rain's Dunedin my head in!

From Christchurch we headed down to Lake Tekapo for the night. It's supposedly one of the most scenic lakes in New Zealand but perhaps you, like I, will have to verify that using Google image! As we drove southwards towards Lake Tekapo, the mountains rolled in, and so did the clouds. They hung around all night and then all the next day. We'd really hoped they would do one, so that we could drive up to the Mount Cook observatory but given that they were still there in the morning, there really was no point as the mountain was covered in cloud. Same when we got to Lake Pukaki - what would have been one of the most scenic views in New Zealand was covered in cloud. We waited around for a bit but there was nothing doing, the clouds weren't going anywhere.
So, we drove onwards to Dunedin, on the South East coast. What a grey day! And a pretty long drive, which wasn't quite as pretty once we got back onto the state highway 1. We stopped off at Oamaru and it was still raining, so all we did was have lunch before heading off again. Had a pretty nice salad though, of warm pumpkin and chicken with spinach- probably my favourite meal so far!
It was late by the time we got to Dunedin. Well, when I say late, everything in New Zealand seems to shut at 5pm, though I think we're just a bit too used to the convenience of London. Anyway, Dunedin is a really nice town. It has a big town centre and a central Octagon, where there's a decent number of bars and pubs, which we haven't seen anywhere else yet. It's also the student capital of the South Island, which probably goes some way to explain that. On a rainy night in Dunedin, there was only one thing to do: get boozy!
The next day was marginally brighter so we went for a drive out to the Otago Peninsula and the Royal Albatross Centre. The drive there seemed totally dodgy, as the road hairpin bends all the way around the peninsula and sits just 3 feet above the sea, meaning that you really pay attention to the speed limits!
I'm not a twitcher but Royal albatrosses are really quite cool! I had no idea, but their wing span can reach 3 metres. They are humongous birds! They're also sea birds and there are only 2 places in the world that they nest in that are readily accessible to humans, so this centre on the Otago Peninsula is pretty special. Our guide was really enthusiastic, and there's no need for me to write down the euphemism Ciaran used but basically the guy got pretty excited each time an albatross flew overhead, or whenever we could get a glimpse of an albatross chick under it's Mum or Dad. It's not something I would usually be interested in but the guide made it really interesting, so it was definitely worth a little detour.
Now we've got another long drive, this time to Te Anau for Doubtful Sound!