Day 60

We woke up early this morning to head to Christchurch. Today would be a travel day. It was a nice morning and we were excited to head up the east coast of the South Island. Along the first part of the drive we watched the Lord of the Rings: Two Towers movie. It was a neat atmosphere to watch the movie in, you could almost look around and feel like you were in the movie. Ok, so it took a little imagination as well, but it was fitting.

We made a few stops along the journey, one in Twizel (near Mt. Cook) for some coffee and a break from the bus. John saw a tractor on the playground and couldn't help himself. (Note the cute little girl on the seasaw just to his left)






















Our next stop proved to be an incredible view.















This is Lake Pukaki, and it was stunning. The water is an amazing teal color, and the mountains in the background provided for a nice view. We got out and took a few pictures before heading north again.















The highest peak in the center of the photo above is Mt. Cook, which stands over 12,000 feet high. It is the highest peak in New Zealand. We have pictures of it in previous blogs when we were over near Fox Glacier, and now we are on the eastern side of the mountains, so we have seen it from both the east and the west.

A little further north we stopped in a town called Lake Tekapo. Below is a picture of a stone church that sits out on a point of land jutting out into the lake. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the view.

Lake Tekapo is known as one of the best places to see the stars. They have strict light ordinances in the town to minimize light pollution and increase the visibility of the night sky. Unfortunately, this time around we only stopped for a lunch break, so we may have to come back to see the stars.

We continued our journey north towards Christchurch and watched another movie, Honey, John loved this one. It is about a female dancer making a name for herself, you should check it out! Shortly after the movie was over we arrived in Christchurch.

After dropping most of the people off, we headed to our hostel called Foley Towers. It was a neat place with beautiful gardens and a bit of calm within the city. We got settled in and headed to an organic food store across the street to get some things for dinner. We went back to the backpackers to make some dinner and check our email before heading to bed.

Days 58 and 59

Day 58

Today was our last day in Dunedin. We were sad to be leaving this cool city. We got up, had a little breakfast and packed up our stuff. After checking out we relaxed in the hostel reading while we waited for our bus. The bus came and we headed back towards Queenstown to spend a couple of nights before we go to Christchurch. The trip over to Queenstown was a quick, but beautiful drive through the mountains. We stopped at the Kawarau bridge so a couple of people from the bus could do the bungy, then we headed into Queenstown. We checked into our hostel then headed downtown to get some dinner. We had a great dinner (2 for the price of 1) at an Indian restaurant. After dinner we walked around town a little bit before going to see "He's just not that into you" at the theater (it was not John's 1st choice, but sometimes you must make sacrifices). Actullay it wasn't too bad. After the movie we went back to our hostel and crashed. Being on the bus always makes us tired.

Day 59

We got up, had some breakfast and hung out at the hostel working on the computer. Looking for a little change of scenery we headed into town to get some pizza and do a little more computer work. We had a very nice pizza and relaxed in the restaurant for awhile before heading back to the hostel. We did a few things at the hostel before heading up the gondola.

The gondola is just a few block from downtown and heads up to a peak that over looks the town,

(there is a bungy site up there, but we refrained from jumping)

the lake,

and the mountains on the other side.

We went up late in the afternoon so we could view the sunset from the top. We had a beer in the bar and watched the sunset and lights turn on down in town. It was a beautiful evening.

Once we got down we headed back into town to have a cheap sushi dinner. It was really inexpensive, but they didn't have any tuna (our favorite) so it was a little disappointing. After dinner we headed back to the hostel to get ready for our travels tomorrow and hit the sack.

Day 57

Another relaxing morning, but not quite as slow as the last couple. After breakfast we headed down to the train depot for the farmer's market. It was a cool market with lots of good food, but we had a long walk ahead of us so we didn't want to buy something and then carry it around all day.
















From the market we headed over to the University of Otago to look at the cool old buildings on campus.





















The campus was really quiet, probably because we were there on a Saturday morning.















After walking around the university we headed over to the Dunedin Botanical Garden...

Incredible!















The flowers were amazing.















We had a great time walking around the gardens looking at all the different flowers, trees and gardens.































The rock garden was our favorite.

Look at this cool picture of a butterfly and a bee on the same flower!















After a picnic snack at the botanical garden we headed down the street to the "Steepest Street in the World"















We hiked up to the top and took in the views. There were great views of the city from the top of the street.





















There is one thing you should know about the "Steepest Street in the World"...it is not actually the steepest street in the world. It was declared the steepest street sometime back in the 90's, but soon after some other street was determined to be steeper, but they still like to call it the "Steepest Street in the World".

Once we made it back down the street we walked back toward the town center stopping along the way to have a late lunch. After lunch we headed back to the hostel to relax, get cleaned up and get ready for our date night.

Around 7:30 we headed down to the Fortune Theater for a play called Emma by Jane Austin. They did a really funny and good version of the play. We had a great time and we had first row seats!

What an awesome day!

Day 56

Day 56

We are really enjoying this relaxing! It is so nice to be able to spend a few days in one place and just relax, no bus trips, no packing your bag every morning, no new hostel every night. John loves to sleep past 8 am!

Well, today we slept in and then chilled out at the hostel until about 11. Then we headed down to the i-site (visitor information center) and booked a wildlife trip out to Otago Peninsula. There are supposed to be a lot of fur seals, sea lions, birds and penguins out on the peninsula (Andrea is on a mission to see penguins). After booking our trip we went back to the hostel to have a little lunch and get ready for our tour.

At 1:30 we went down to the i-site to head out on our Elm Wildlife Tour. We loaded up the van and headed out the peninsula. Along the way we got a great view of the harbor and Dunedin city (you can't see the city in the picture below).
















We were heading out the albatross center and along the way saw a bunch a different types of birds. First there were some Kakapoo birds grazing in the field and looking for some food. One of them has his head in the ground, must be something good down there!
















Then there were some black swans on the beach, hanging out with the ducks.
















This was some of the view that we had during our visit with some fur seals, sea lions and yellow eyed penguins. The company that we went on the tour with has access to some private farm land, so there were very few people out on the land. There are a couple of sheep grazing in the pasture.















Then it was down to visit with the fur seals! Below is one of the seal pups that had just come out of the water.















This female fur seal was just playing around on the rocks and also relaxing.















The seals were very active and it was fun to see them playing in the water and going in and out of the water.















Most of the older seals were relaxing in the rocks and waiting for their kids to come back from playing in the water.















Then, we were priviledged to see something that Andrea has been very excited about seeing for a long time. A yellow eyed penguin!! Beautiful penguins and quite rare. We were really close to the penguins as well since it was early evening and they were coming in from the water to nest/rest for the evening.






















This one is trying to cool off after walking up from the water.
















As we walked a little bit further down the pathway towards the beach, we were greeted by another penguin coming up on the land. This one was still waddling along trying to find his spot to rest. They are so cute!





















When the penguin saw us it stopped for awhile to cool off a bit and re-oil its wings. We watched as it used it's beak to get oil out of a gland on its backside and then distribute that oil onto it's wings.





















Andrea really like the penguins and ended up taking quite a few pictures. Beautiful creatures and so wonderful to see them in their natural habitat.





















After observing the penguins for a few minutes we decided to leave it alone so it could continue with it's evening undisturbed. When we got to the beach we watched as 4 male sea lions played on the beach. The alpha male is below, going over to the group to take charge.















The sea lions were picking on the sallest male. The guide has studied sea lions for a number of years and mentioned to us that the smallest male will end up playing the role of the female since the females usually seperate themselves from the males. It was interesting to watch them interact.















As soon as the alpha male came over, you knew who was in charge. Eventually the smallest one escaped and swam out to sea (the one in front of the picture below).

It is a bit hard to see, but at the bottom of the picture below there are some penguins on the beach and at the point where the beach meets the rocks and the land. They hike up this fairly steep hill to get to the place where they will rest for the evening.

Perhaps not a sight that you would anticipate seeing, but the sheep and penguins seemed to be unaffected by each other. The sheep were quietly grazing along the side of the hill while the penguins hiked up the hill to get to their nesting place.

Below are a couple of views of the top of the hill.

It started to get a bit dark, so we headed back towards the van in order to head back to Dunedin. Some of the sea lions were sleeping on the beach.

Apparantly this is a normal behavior, but we saw a couple of sea lions throw up while we were headed back to the van. They eat a lot of food during the day and cannnot digest all the bones and shells of the fish, crabs and whatever else they eat, so they vomit them up onto the beach. It was quite a violent act as they bang their bellies on the beach to assist in the process.

It was a fabulous afternoon and we enjoyed the tour a great deal. Andrea was very excited to have seen some penguins, especially so close. By the time we had walked back up to the van the sun was setting in the rolling hills and it was a spectacular view.

By the time we got back to the hostel it was just before 8pm, so we had some dinner and relaxed for the evening.

Day 55

Day 55

Another day in Dunedin. We are really enjoying our time relaxing in Dunedin.

Today we got up had a little breakfast then made a few phone calls and did a little e-mailing. After that we went and walked around town a little bit. We went and saw the beautiful First Church of Otago.






















It is located on a little hill over looking the harbor. The spire was so tall we couldn't get it all in in one photo.

It is a really beautiful place with some incredible stained glass windows.

We walked around the church and looked through the little visitor/history center at the back of the church. It was a really neat place to visit.

After the church we went looking for some lunch. We couldn't decide on a place to go so we ended up going to the movies. We went to a neat old cinema and watched the "Wrestler" with Mickey Rourke. It was a good/interesting movie. By the way we ended up having popcorn for lunch!

After the movie we headed back to our hostel and made some dinner. Then we relaxed, read and named pictures (Andrea loves to name pictures...well probably doesn't love it, but does it so we can remember all the places and things in the photos).

Day 53 and Day 54 - John's Birthday!

Day 53 was pretty uneventful. We had some eggs and toast for breakfast, did a little reading/e-mail and then headed over to the south side of Dunedin to find a chiropractor. A guy we met on Stewart Island said there was a nice chiropractor down that end of town and he gave us some rough directions. Andrea wanted to have a wee chat with the chiropractor, so we headed down that way (also there was a cheap grocery store over there).

Well, no luck finding the chiropractor, but we did get a bunch of food at the grocery store. While searching for the non-existent chiropractor we found an address for another chiropractor who was on our way back toward the hostel. We stopped on our way back and Andrea set up a time to come back for an adjustment.

Back at the hostel we had a little lunch (boy do I love ramen noddles)! Andrea headed for her adjustment and I relaxed (not sure what I did).

Later that evening we made a nice salad and pasta dinner and watched a very intense New Zealand movie called "Out of the Blue". It is about the worst mass murder in New Zealand history (incidently it occurred in a smalll town not far from Dunedin). This guy goes crazy and starts shooting his neighbors. He ends up killing 13 people and injuring several more.

WHOA...lots of words and no pictures on this day.

April 15, 2009 John's 31st birthday (Andrea says I'm getting old)! I woke up early because I had to go pee (man I must be getting old) and saw this...














incredible sunrise. I woke up Andrea so she could have a look and she took all these amazing pictures.

After spending a few minutes enjoying the colors I went back to bed (it's my birthday, plus we're on holiday)! I got a little more rest before my parents called to wish me a happy birthday. Very nice, thank you, but maybe a little bit too early. But I know they wouldn't want me to "waste my whole day sleeping". Then Andrea came up with nice breakfast in bed of eggs, toast, fruit and coffee (what a wonderful wife)!

After that we hung out at the hostel for awhile reading, making phone calls and relaxing before our tour of the...????

Cadbury Chocolate Factory.















I got to meet the bunny





















and even got a free little packet of chocolate roses because it was my birthday. The tour wasn't that great because the factory was shut down for upgrades, but we did get to see the worlds biggest chocolate waterfall (yippie) and got some killer deals on cadbury chocolate bars (yummy).

After the tour we went up towards the octagon (center of town) to find some sushi. We had an awesome sushi birthday dinner before heading back to our hostel to relax and let our stomachs stuffed full of super good raw fish and saki do their work.





































Hogwartz is the coolest hostel in New Zealand.