The Sahara Guesthouse & Motel Dunedin

... wanted to make a list of the countries from which my new friends in Toroa come from, but I don't know if I can remember them all. Some, off the top of my head, are:<br>US, Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Norway, China, Malaysia, Japan...<br>So far, the best part of my trip has been talking to and spending time with these people. I feel lucky that English is the chosen language ...

... expected that we, as the couch potatoes that we are, would have been close to death after climbing that hill (TWICE!). However we surprised even ourselves by feeling still reasonably energetic by the time we were back in Dunedin. The fact that it was a nice clear (and DRY) night gave us extra energy and we decided to head out to check out the scottish-inspired buildings that Dunedin is famous for. Luckily many of the picturesque buildings in Dunedin have nice lighting ...

... house next door. They make really good beer. To go with the beer, Tim delved into Fish and Chips and I had the ploughman's meal of cheeses, meats, pickles, onions and a huge loaf of their Alehouse bread. (See picture). After dinner we walked in the rain around the city center and took a bunch of pictures. It seems all towns we visit have the biggest churches imaginable. Dunedin having Scottish roots has the requisite ...

... hot driving the tar on the roads was melting causing all the gravel to lift, lucky the hire car is so battered it made no difference. Dunedin was good and while there Mac went under the needle again, he will do anything to get out of giving blood. Mac : O ) On the way to Dunedin we stopped at Moreaki to see the boulders...awsome. 400 million years in the making and the sea errosion is un earthing more of them ...

... patrons these days pay $165 NZ for the 10 second adrenaline rush of jumping off from 43m high. There was an excellent viewing point where the crowds clap the jumpers and increase the volume when someone starts to have second thoughts (and we saw a few of them!) about their jump when they stand on the edge!! I will admit to just a fleeting moment of temptation of indulging in this madness but it didn't last. It ...

... and we walked over towards the cliff. The main Albatross nesting site was closed to the public at the moment due to it being the start of the nesting season. Apparently the nesting site is closed off while the Albatrosses are choosing a mate and building their nests. It doesn't re-open till the chicks are born so as not to disturb the breeding birds. Sean also explained that there may not be too many Albatrosses flying into the site as the wind was very light and ...

Monday 22nd September A last minute decision saw us staying over on Monday night as well so long as we were able to cook! So we headed out to the Otago Peninsular for the day leaving Mat and Lizzy to go to their jobs as physiotherapists. We stopped first at the marine research aquarium run by the University of Otago. This aquarium was well stocked with only locally ...

... We then walked out of the factory and into one of the 3 large silos where they keep the crumb (coco and milk powder). She went in and switched something on, then suddenly a tonne of liquid chocolate poured from the top and straight down, splattering everywhere! It was incredible! All that yummy chocolate. It's real, they make it especially for this reason and every few months they strip everything down and steam clean it and make new chocolate. I got loads of free ...

... i have to try to track down the professor in marine science tomorrow and if it's sunny, i will try to take some pictures of the campus. it's quite old and very historic. while staying at the hostel here i made friends with three of the other girls in my room. two from australia and one from the uk. they were so nice and we ended up haning out a lot over the past three days. thursday we went to one of the bigger attractions in dunedin, the cadbury ...

... out in the sticks apart from this really rubbish one that is done by the local primary schools - my god...<br><br>We had a bit of a walk to our next stop - the Purakanui Falls - which are the most photographed falls in New Zealand (I'm wondering if this is a lie though because surely more people visit the Huka Falls?) anyway... They are really pretty they have like 4 small drops to go over - I was playing with my camera to try and get that soft looking flowy water ...