Week eleven: Dunedin, Southland and Otago

Last weekend we hired a car and travelled south along the coastal scenic route through the Catlins. It was stunningly beautiful and we were lucky to have glorious weather. We stopped at the Whistling Frog cafe for lunch and again at Curio Bay, famous for it's fossilised forest and yellow-eyed penguins, although they were hiding from us.
We stayed the night in Invercargill which is one of the world's southernmost towns. The couple we stayed with has a classic old Chev so we drove in it down to Oreti Beach which was stunning. The next morning we drove in it again up Bluff hill (I didn't think it was going to make it up the steep road) and saw spectacular views along the coast and across to Stewart Island.
We then drove north to stay in Alexandra which is a small town with a giant clock on the hillside. The drive the following day took us across some amazing Central Otago scenery with dry plains, brown mountains and blue sky, as immortalised in many art works here. We finished the journey with a drive down the coast north of Dunedin to Port Chalmers where the cruise ships dock and along to the end of the Otago Peninsula to see the albatross colony, but unfortunately no birds were flying.
The rest of this week in Dunedin I have visited the museum, art gallery, Botanic Gardens, rugby stadium and Olveston House, which is a fascinating house built in the early 1900s by a wealthy merchant and preserved as it would have been at that time. It is full of amazing art and furniture and has a beautiful garden. Yesterday I caught the us back to the Otago Peninsula for a picnic and walked back in the sunshine. Today is our last day in Dunedin so we hope to return to St Clair beach for dinner tonight, although the weather is quite cloudy.
Tomorrow we fly to Wellington - the final leg of my travels.