Mercure Leisure Lodge Dunedin

... B&B lady and an award winner from Cuisine magazine. A strange place which was completely full (compared to the empty Bell Peppers) but managed to squeeze me into the bar on a small table. The place was also stacked with curios and old books like some junk shop. I found a great Wine Guide to New Zealand from 1976 which kept me very entertained (no mention of Sauvignon Blanc at all and no ...

... by the pretty cathedral. Dunedin has a lot of Scottish influence, so I bought some Scottish shortbread. Then we returned to the station to take our seats on the Taieri Gorge Railway. On a lovely old train we journeyed for over 2 hours through farms, rolling hills, fields, and across rivers to a stunning gorge cut deep into the rock. There was not a house to be seen, just trees, rock and river. It was beautiful, especially with the Autumn colours. We got off the train a couple ...

... are yellow-eyed penguins very slowly making their way upshore from the water. A couple have made it up onto the grass and now stand beside sheep grazing on the hills. As it gets dark we walk back past the sea lions who are now more animated - so much so that the males are up and fighting. They make quite scary noises and lunge their blubbery bodies and jaws towards eachother. It is so amazing to see all these animals in their natural habit and to be so close to them.

... 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!  

... fleeting glances, as we passed through, did seem quite an attractive city, but we had no time to stay and take a closer look - penguins called!! From Dunedin we turned off and headed out on to the Otago Peninsula - another hairy car drive, along a narrow road, only just wide enough for two cars, with a sheer rock face on one side and now barrier to a precipitous drop into the sea on the other and local drivers breathing down our necks behind!!! Thankfully ...

... few exceptions - there always are I am afraid! All generated much tutting and a few muted comments. It was a great sight to see the penguins swim in and then cross the beach, up the hill and past all the humans to get to their burrows for the night. At this time of year the male penguins do the fishing, come back at dusk and then make for the burrows to "vomit" the fish up and allow the females and the chicks to ...

Kia Ora, von Oamaru ging es weiter nach Dunedin, der groessten Stadt im Sueden. Vor Dunedin liegt die Otago Halbinsel, ein Wildlife Paradies. Nirgendwo sonst auf der Erde gibt es eine Albatrosskolonie so nah an besiedelten Gebieten, an der Spitze der Otago Halbinsel gibt es eine Royal Albatross Kolonie, die groessten Albatrosse mit 3,30m Spannweite. Nach der Geburt braucht ein Albatross ein Jahr Fuersorge seiner Eltern (beide Eltern sind noetig um genuegend Futter zu bringen ...

... time - inden jeg var nødt til at gå hjem og skide!). Der er også nogle billeder fra Long Beach i udkanten af Dunedin, hvor det stod på klatring og surfing. Derudover har jeg lige smidt et par nye billeder ind i mit tidligere indlæg om min skitur. Ellers går tiden med noget så kedeligt som skolearbejde. De kører os sgu hårdt for tiden... Take care! Bo

After leaving Queenstown we made the decision that going any further south was a waste as the LP basically said that it was boring with nothing to do, going to the west coast we would only come across Te Anu and Milford Sound which though worth seeing would cost more money, something that we definately did not have! So we decided that we would head East to Dunedin. The drive took most of the day ...

... game official, came by then and answered all our questions up to that point on the game. He wasn't thrilled that we were sitting with Aussie fans, but hung out for awhile nonetheless. After he left, Jody decided he needed to get a meat pie like the one Peter was eating. The beer purveyors just shook their heads as he passed. So Jody gets back to the stands meat pie and tomato sauce in hand, but he's confused about how to open the tomato ...