Pure Danger

Sunday was our first day in Dunedin. I saw Elizabeth for the first time since we parted ways two years ago in the Irkutsk airport at the end of the Tahoe Baikal Summer Exchange progam. Being the adventurous people we are, we decided to tackle a challenging Geocache on the Otago peninsula near the city of Dunedin. The title of the cache was "Vertigo Extreme" and was rated 5/5 for terrain difficulty. We followed a sheep path along the edge of a cliff about 100 m above the ocean, then down a steep but manageable grassy slope to a ledge about 30 m (100 feet) over the rough surf below. Watching the waves churn from such great heights was vertigo-inducing! We searched in vain for the cache, but did see a rainbow, numerous seabirds, and a sea lion hunting fish! Check out the pictures Matt took of it! Once it even came up with two fish in its mouth, but it lost one when it tried to turn them around in its mouth.



The rainbow was a sign of the rain coming in from the Pacific, so we had to leave our sea lion friend to make it back up the slope before we got too wet. Even so the rain and wind pelted the left sides of our bodies as we made our way back to the car. This is another great example of a place we never would have found if it weren't for Geocaching.



For those of you keeping track at home this geocache was at 45°52'43.09"S, 170°44'19.64"E.

Carrie