Honeymoon Day 12 - Driving to Dunedin
We had originally planned to spend half a day in Wanaka and then drive over to Dunedin, but since there wasn't really anything else we wanted to do in Wanaka, we left early and took the scenic route over to the east coast. Once again, there were some amazing overlooks, now seeing the Pacific ocean from the other side!
We had stopped to get drinks and use the restroom in a small town north of Dunedin, and at the visitors center picked up a brochure of all the little scenic routes. On it was listed a neat-sounding feature called the organ pipes. These are bassalt rock structures with a hexagonal shape, that really were quite interesting, despite the New Zealand stupid-steep switchback hike to get to them.
We weren't entirely prepared for it to be a hike, since the brochure didn't mention that you'd have to hike to the columns. Luckily, someone had scrawled on the sign that it was indeed an hour or so round trip, and somehow Charlie convinced me to go. It was worth it, despite being a little cranky about unexpected physical exertion after yet another day of mountain driving.
Apparently, there used to be a viewing platform underneath this now really strange looking rockslide. It was still really cool though, and not something we'd seen before anywhere else. The rocks looked like surely they had been man-made, and I'm still not sure how the process works to create them, but they really are a natural phenomenon.
Finally, we made it to our last hotel. When I was booking it I decided that because it was our honeymoon it was probably worth upgrading to the ocean-view suite, and I am sure glad we did! This is the view from our living room, where Charlie is again showing off his yo-yo around the world skills. There was a similar view from the bedroom, and we spent some time watching the surfers out on the beach before grabbing dinner downtown Dunedin and then getting to bed.
We had stopped to get drinks and use the restroom in a small town north of Dunedin, and at the visitors center picked up a brochure of all the little scenic routes. On it was listed a neat-sounding feature called the organ pipes. These are bassalt rock structures with a hexagonal shape, that really were quite interesting, despite the New Zealand stupid-steep switchback hike to get to them.
We weren't entirely prepared for it to be a hike, since the brochure didn't mention that you'd have to hike to the columns. Luckily, someone had scrawled on the sign that it was indeed an hour or so round trip, and somehow Charlie convinced me to go. It was worth it, despite being a little cranky about unexpected physical exertion after yet another day of mountain driving.
Apparently, there used to be a viewing platform underneath this now really strange looking rockslide. It was still really cool though, and not something we'd seen before anywhere else. The rocks looked like surely they had been man-made, and I'm still not sure how the process works to create them, but they really are a natural phenomenon.
Finally, we made it to our last hotel. When I was booking it I decided that because it was our honeymoon it was probably worth upgrading to the ocean-view suite, and I am sure glad we did! This is the view from our living room, where Charlie is again showing off his yo-yo around the world skills. There was a similar view from the bedroom, and we spent some time watching the surfers out on the beach before grabbing dinner downtown Dunedin and then getting to bed.
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