The penguin reserve and the Royal Albatross Centre are at the tip of the peninsula. We had made a phone booking for a tour to the albatross centre from our motel itself and since there was time before our booking, we drove to the penguin place first. On reaching there, we had to wait a while for the next tour to begin and realising that it was either the penguins or the albatrosses, we called up the latter and cancelled our reservation. At the penguin place, our tour began with a slideshow which gave a brief history of the penguin reserve (it is a private enterprise!) and a detailed overview of the Yellow Eyed Penguin. Our guides then boarded us into a bus and a station-wagon and drove us over some highlands which were filled with grazing sheep to the other side of the peninsular landmass till we could see the Pacific Ocean once again below us. Along the way, we could see some fur seals parked on the rocks close to the beach. Soon, we were made to enter trenches dug into the ground and covered with net and foliage which served to camouflage these man-made structures in what was otherwise the natural setting for the fur seals and the penguins. We saw the penguins come out of the ocean and announce their presence on the beach by standing motionless for several minutes on end. Actually, they were shedding excess water from their bodies while contemplating life in general and their next move in particular. Finally, they decided to move on further towards the slightly higher, and greener, bush. It was a slow climb - and it appeared to be laborious work for these small birds but pretty soon, they were very close to where we stood in the trenches observing every small step they took. The trenches made an extensive network all along the beachhead and we could move from one subterranean observation point to another without having to show ourselves to the penguins. We were allowed to take pictures without using flash guns, and we really wished we had a powerful zoom lens with us because it would have given us excellent pictures of these lovely creatures. In any case, we got to look at them from within 4-5 metres in their natural environs and that was very thrilling.

We drove back to Dunedin town, crossing Dunedin Railway Station and the University of Otago along the way. The railway station is in Flemish Renaissance style and looks very grand while several buildings in the University campus have a distinctly Victorian. Made us feel like giving up our jobs and going back to university! We walked down George Street till we reached the Octagon, the city centre and after a quick recce, found ourselves in the Bacchus Wine Bar & Restaurant, on the first floor of a building overlooking the Octagon. True to its name, the food was outstanding, both in appearance and taste. Finally, having complimented the chef, we rolled our way back to our motel but not before walking into an all-night convenience store for some provisions. It was here that we spotted our first NPS (Nanga Paonv Special, or barefoot Kiwi) and looked on in awe as this person walked into the store, picked up his supplies, paid for them and coolly walked out as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world to be walking around barefoot (which it is actually, in NZ)! Of course, the roads and sidewalks were so clean that one could do without footwear in this town.