Moeraki Boulders, and Fleur Sullivan!

These are some special rocks! They originally formed in ancient sea floor sediments around 60 million years ago, and over time have split and infilled with crystals. They have "appeared" due to erosion over time. 

FLEUR'S PLACE

Prior to this trip, when Kara googled "Best NZ Restaurants," this came up: "When British television chef and restaurateur Rick Stein was told he could choose to go anywhere in the world to write a travel article for English newspaper the Daily Mail, he chose Fleurs Place in Moeraki, New Zealand."

Needless to say, this is one detour we were not going to skip. So even though a drizzly day, and we already had dinner plans a couple hours down the road, we paid a visit. How surprised were we when Fleur herself greeted us at the door when we walked in!! Since her kitchen staff were technically off duty (it was the break between lunch and dinner service), Fleur offered to make us an appetizer herself. She proposed potted eel (which is one of her most famous dishes) - and believe it or not, all four of us liked. How about that for unexpected?! We enjoyed a private dining experience at Fleurs, overlooking the sea (and the kids enjoyed watching the man cleaning the afternoon's catch in preparation for dinner service.) And we didn't even have to spoil our dinner :)