Elm Lodge Dunedin

Mon 5th May - Before driving to Dunedin we went from our ranch to Lake Manapouri and Pearl Harbour - yes really! We also stopped off aq couple of times on the way to Dunedin to see some mountain views and some sheep running in a crazy fashion down a mountain. We got to Elm Lodge and are sharing a room with 2 cool girls, one from Germany (Catalina) and one from Estonia (Lina). After chatting to them for a bit we decided to go for a quick walk round town to get our bearings. This was quite a lo...

21.05.09: Gorgeous day to drive from Mt Cook towards the coast. we could mot help but stopping every few kilometers to take pictures of the mountains and the lakes. We also stopped to look at some Maori paintings on the rocks. Some looked a bit like the ones in saw in Australia. They were also painting men on horses, settlers' ships and tribal designs. We continued our trip towards the coast and stopped in the town of Omamaru, famous for its penguin colonies.

We went to check the yell...

Road trip to see the Catlins Coast and then spend the night in Dunedin. After getting the wrong highway out of Invercargill and then getting lost on the shortcut between the two, we left invercargill for the second time on the right highway bound for Fortrose. We elected to follow the coastal route and stopped off at a few places inlcuding slope point (southernmost point of the south island) and curio bay (dolphins and petrified forest). By late afternoon the clutch was showing some signs of ...

The hostel was a good one, Elm Lodge. The beds were comfy and not bunks, it was clean, and there was parking outside. Apart from the lung-wrenching two hill climbs from town, it seemed as good a place as any to stay while I worked for a few weeks. After a cursory interview with a temp agency (sample question from interviewer: "wow, we don't get many people in here with typing ability!") they called me later in the day with a job in the corporate offices of a local department store. Unfortunat...

Today we headed across the country - well around the Southern most coast really - headed for Dunedin (which is Scottish for Edinburgh apparantly - unless I was being lied to???)

There was so many little places for us to stop on the way that it actually ended up being one of the best days I've had over here (well if you ignore Yvonne being in the car that is). Our first stop was Slope Point - which is actually the most Southernly point of the South Island - most people mistakenly think ...

My first coach trip from Christchurch was a success. It was straightforward and I got to see New Zealand countryside along the way. I arrived in Oamaru with the plan to see the penguins in their natural habitat. On my first day I did the skyline walk around the surrounding hills of the town, it took me through fields, forest and a valley. It was a lovely walk and the weather was warm, perfect. That evening I headed to the site of the yellow-eyed penguins and waited for two hours to see them. ...