Sail on the Ridge Dunedin

... break between them.

Our tale begins in Sutton, England where my Dad began his epic two day journey to Queenstown via Los Angeles and Auckland. For this part of the trip Steve and I were preparing things at our end by baking muffins and flapjacks and generally relaxing ahead of the busy week to come but Dad was suffering by loosing two nights of sleep and going through a 12 hour time change. Unbelievably however when he finally set foot in Queenstown he seemed more ...

... Queenstown, it was Sebastian's car and he wanted to go to the peninnsula, so we had to find another hosel.

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.

... 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 ...

So, we spent a very enjoyable week down in Dunedin. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all involved for your warm hospitality. What can I say about Dunedin then, well its a small, population about 110,000, Last estimates of the number of homeless people living on the streets of London are about 150 thou. I think Dunners might have a dozen or so strange characters that for whatever reason have decided this is a good spot to sleep rough. Sure, you can connect to the internet ...

... We also walked to a view point with a light house from the 1800's that was perched at the end of this cliff area. All around the light house there was these rock outcroppings dotting the area. They called it the Nugget Point, because they looked like gold nuggets. After another beautiful scenic drive we arrived in Dunedin. Its a great city with tons of European influences. Beautiful old buildings and ...

... We made the trek back, which was incredibly difficult - straight up a giant hill, made of sand. You literally had to pause every few steps to take a breather. The last stop of the day was to see the Royal Albatross colony at the very point of the Otago Peninsula. These are the largest of all albatross species and the only ones which nest on the mainland and are therefore most accessible to ...

... ing in the back) but no penguins to be seen th**e eith**. We do see a lot of seals lounging on the rocks. Th**e used to be a coal mine h**e and we can see the coal in the soil. It continues to drizzle so we carry on south to Dunedin. The main road climbs up into the low cloud before descending into town. In the evening, we see the nw James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. V**y exciting.

The time has arrived for me to leave good ol' Dunedin and head back out on the road again. i've been talking about my upcoming trip to Australia for a while now, and it's (almost) hard to believe that i'm only 3 days away from boarding a bus and heading back up to christchurch to begin my journey. i had planned to spend this last week tying up loose ends and getting things ...

... out of bed at 2am when i got your text!!! am so thrilled for you both and cant wait to catch up in lanzarote right anyway here i am in dunedin and its LASHING rain outside so im settling in for a nice night infront of the fire watching the chinese pretend that everything is okay with them as they put on the show of their lives. im kind of torn, half of me wants to boycott it after everything thats happened with tibet etc etc but on the other hand if anyone will ...

... and, if you think about it, logically impossible...but those who wield the rubber stamps are, it seems, utterly unmovable. It wouldn't take long with a bottle of Tipp-Ex and a biro to insert something like "...or which, in its untreated state, has been deemed fit for human consumption..." into the wording of the statute, but then common sense and legislature have never been the happiest of bedfellows. Speight's are quite proud of being the only 'gravity brewery' left ...