Maz NZ and Oz

The day after we tried to see Milford Sound, it was bright and clear... typical. So after hanging out at the hostel for a while, we headed for Dunedin to see the penguins. We stayed in the Stafford Gables YHA there, see (http://www.yha.org.nz/hostels-ind.asp?id=66). It's a very nice old building that used to be a hospital (I think) and it's haunted. I learned later on from a friend of mine that used to work for the YHA that our room was particularly huanted... but I was blissfully unaware of any ghostly activities. Denise did feel a little uneasy doing her laundry in what used to be the morgue at one o'clock in the morning, but that might have been indigestion from the late dinner we had....

Going to see the penguins involved taking a drive out to the Otago peninsula and settling in for a few hours at the top of a beach there to wait for the penguins to come in from their day's fishing. There were also sea lions at the beach, and despite warnings all over the place not to approace them, lots of people crowded around this one to take some pictures... I took a picture too, but from a much futher distance... One of the people here (I think it was the guy to the right of the man in the red jacket) got a little too close and when the sea lion started running at him, he tripped and fell in the sand. Gen said the look of fear in his face was unreal... he obviously thought his number was up for a second!