Forrester Lodge Dunedin

... to illustrate it for you! Looking back through that mass of photographs I like to think that I know how Peter Jackson felt when he had all his footage for the Lord of the Rings films and suddenly realized that editing it all down was most likely going to take longer than shooting it all in the first place! Seeing as he allowed himself the privilege of three films to do the story justice I am also going to split up our trip into three blogs entries to give you (and me ...

... Queenstown, it was Sebastian's car and he wanted to go to the peninnsula, so we had to find another hosel.<br><br>The peninnsula was all right, but not worth another night. We saw some sea lions and some good views from some oceanside cliffs, but that was about it. We saw a penguin or two as well, but once again from a great distance. The plus side of it was the new hostel we stayed at, Penny's, had free Internet. Anyway, we set off for Queenstown the next day, so it was not too bad.<br>

... a cliff. We then went to catch a wildlife cruise which took us into the harbour, past blue penguins, sea lions, a seal colony, many birds, albatross chicks sitting on top of the cliffs and then out to sea. There we saw large numbers of huge albatrosses fighting over fish, swimming, squawking and flying. They are huge - their wingspan is up to 3m. It was wonderful to see all the wildlife (and the beautiful coastline) so close up. After the cruise we went to the yellow-eyed ...

... morning and scrape down all their windows. Luckily it seems the students are the lifeblood of the town and contribute far more to the local economy than they destroy. Dunedin is quieter than Auckland in nature as well as everything else than Auckland. I noticed the only sound was the crickets at night, compared to Auckland much nosier cicada's which I guess English readers won't have a clue about. They make quite a racket, but its the sound of Summer I'm used to and it ...

... with home theatre and audio, which is almost acceptable to Dave (once he had changed the set up, adjusted the sound and cleaned the 50 inch screen), that we would stay in with an Indian take away, so that's what we did, and we had a really great night listening to the rain which started to fall just after we got back. So its back to Christchurch tomorrow, for our last night in NZ. Very sad but we have had a great trip so far and plan to round it off in some style tomorrow night!  

... some more fur seals, and after that we went to Taiaroa Head, the North tip of the peninsula, to visit the Royal Albatross Centre, and see some albatrosses, of course. It turned out that to get close to the albatrosses you have to pay for an expensive guided tour, so we settled for some albatross spotting at a distance (after all these are really big birds, right?), and we did see a few on their glidding fight, besides that the view was also great. Right next to the ...

... If I wanted to walk for an hour to reach the sea while being rained on and blown at by gale force breezes, I would have gone to Blackpool. Yesterday was again very cloudy, though the rain managed to contain itself until later on at night when I had already gotten home. Whilst making my way up to Taiaroa Head, the northernmost point on the peninsula, I stopped by Pilots Beach, where young fur seals can be seen coming ashore to play. I watched them for ...

... bus from Wellington to Auckland. nov. 12-- "Magic Bus" from Auckland to Whangarei. nov. 13-- Day trip to Tutukaka and the Poor Knights Islands for some diving. nov. 14-- "Magic Bus" from Whangarei to Paihia. nov. 15-- day trip to Cape Reinga, the most northern tip of NZ. nov. 16-- "Magic Bus" from Paihia to Dargaville, then back down to Auckland. nov. 17-- 9:25am flight to ...

... cos they werent busy i was able to get the one id really had booked. so it was back on the road again in a slightly smaller and slightly less cool car than my corolla but it still gets the job done. first stop was lake tekapo and the lovely YHA there which is right on the lake. incredible views, incredible sunsets and the place was half empty so there was only me and one other korean girl in the room. i got some nice sunset pics and went for a bit of a wander ...

... more independent microbreweries are gaining ground, Speight's are making more of an effort to produce a decent collection of ales. Having toured around, listening to the rote-learned, rapid-fire commentary from Jason the guide, it was time for a tasting. We enjoyed most of their stuff (well, the apricot flavoured seasonally brewed Summer Ale wasn't great), but as usual, the rich dark porter type brew won. It was served far too cold for that style of beer to be honest ...