Mom & Dad in Dunedin: Moeraki in the Sun

While we were sauntering around Aussie, Mom and Dad arrived in New Zealand to begin their adventure in Aotearoa. They trained from Auckland to Wellington on the Overlander, spent a few days in Wellington and then took the Interislander to Picton and bused to Kaikoura since the TranzCoastal route was interrupted from the earthquake. After a few days in Kaikoura, they bused to Christchurch and did the world famous TranzAlpine Christchurch to Greymouth train trip. Apparently, it's rated one of the world’s great scenic railway journeys, and from what I heard, they would completely agree.

View from Mom & Dad's apt

From Christchurch, they bused to Dunedin, and we picked them up in the early evening of Wednesday, March 30th - what a great day!  Mom and Dad are in Dunedin!  We picked up some fish & chips (you have to start out with a very traditional Kiwi meal) and got them settled into their very cool place at Roslyn Apartments which is right around the corner from our house.  After we saw the apartment (and the view!), we decided that we'd spending lots of time there during their 6 days in Dunedin.  Elena was working the closing shift at No. 7, so we headed over there for dessert.

One of the beautiful sunrises from their apartamento

For their first day in Dunedin, we promptly left the city and headed north to Moeraki to see the supercool and NZ unique Moeraki Boulders.  Todd and I had been there before on a gray day and had hoped the day we would go with Mom and Dad would be nice and sunny...and it was!  We even saw a penguin!!

 

Trying to instruct Dad when to press click for the perfect jumping picture

Picture time!

The original of this must be on Dad's camera

Love this one!

Elena lost in a boulder

Another fabulous family pic...just need to photoshop Sonia in.

Aren't they cute??!!

PENGUIN!! They are so cute!!!! And only about 6" tall..

After playing around on the boulders, we headed to the world famous Fleur's Place for a delicious seafood lunch.  Fleur herself was there, and after asking us where we were from, she told us that the crazy Russians outside on the patio were staying in a luxury lodge around the corner and the big guy was second in charge after Gorbachev in the Soviet Union. Don't know that I believe it, but they were Russian, they drank a lot of vodka, and we literally saw Fleur's entire menu go by us and get delivered to their table.  Those four Russians must have been hungry!!

Todd & Mom's shared salmon was all dolled up.

Shags on the pier

Dad is so funny.

The fabulous Wright family hosted the entire Barrantes/Humora/Reddy clan for dinner, and a wonderful time was had by all...which is superbly easy when you're eating Sheryl's cooking!