Venturing into Central Otago

---

Time keeps moving, blogging gets put on the back burner, however, the blog must live on to give light to our memories and home hemisphere. As the time has past since our last update, blog items have tallied, therefore expect a string of them over the next while. We will now pick up where we left off in Dunedin.

Christina and I were about to leave Dunedin, which was a perfect fortress of peers and security, with ample space, running water, cuddly companions (Slinky and Toby), as well as two incredible Canadians, Duane and Charlotte. The time had come for us to set out on what we came to the Southern Hemisphere for...miss a Canadian winter. However, there was one more feat that needed to be accomplished. 'Tui' had made it clear that he wanted to climb the world's steepest street, and one day we happened to be in the precise neighborhood, We made a go at it, but to no avail based on my non-tenacious driving we only made it about 2/3 or so up. Things were a little tense for awhile as 'Tui' knew it was not his fault completely, but I said it was in his best interest to let be, as I taught him the lesson of the Gambler and a man named Kenny Rogers.

With the setting being set, already much south of Auckland where we arrived, a new home 'Tui', bodies and minds well rested from the holiday season, we packed up our possessions and lives back into 'Tui' trying to forget as quickly as possible how big the king size bed we had been sleeping on actually was, for now it was up to a twin air mattress to allow us to dream and rest. It is called a twin mattress because it is for two....yes? Anyways, the reasonably easy task of moving what little we had into 'Tui' and leave took an amazing amount of time. Up at 9 pm on the road by 4 pm. It is good to know that the Southern Hemisphere cannot contain my procrastination skills that I have honed over the years. Nonetheless, we were moving, exploring, each kilometer further south then where we had been before.

Along the way, petro prices increased, shops remained closed after 5:30 pm, but the landscapes and horizons continually change with every mountain range, pass, and valley. The country's topography never goes to sleep or is ever idle. That momentous adventure took us to Gorge Creek ... a rest stop at a hairpin corner, along the way to Alexandra where we had pre-planned to stay the night, for we knew Alexandra would be too great to handle by night .... We needed to rest and renew our strength, for tomorrow would be the day to encounter the mighty Alexandra.

Sleep we did. It must have been the aura of Alexandra that put us to bed by 9 pm and kept us contained until 12:15 pm the next day. We awoke to the cries of our astonishment of "Oh my! What time it is?... You got to be kidding!" I must add the topography at Gorge Creek is the first time I sensed the landscape to reveal that of the 'Lord of the Rings.' (the part where there is a battle with org/dog things and Aragon gets pushed over a cliff into the river...I believe) Before this point in our journey I had not associated New Zealand to the 'Lord of the Rings,' but time was crafting.

Setting in motion, we ventured into our new home land. 'Tui' guided us as we patrolled the new found territory. It was pleasant and cozy, swiftly finding 'Seasonal Solutions' a business designed to place humans (us) into areas of excess fruit. However today would not be the day to enter. We knew that going into this place of solutions we would be giving ourselves over to the powers that be, and we would lose our freedom of indecisiveness, and we would by nature exploit ourselves for the cause, proving Canada and our upbringing proud. And besides what if we didn't like it, what if they were not nice, what if I got a sunburn, heat stroke, what if they... I don't know, paid us? Anyways, we spent the next two days familiarizing ourselves with town...finding nooks and crannies along with the tales of yesteryear's gold rush. On one day we took a drive north to charge our computer and see if the trace of gold could be found. What we found was old Ghost towns once holding the booming prospect of gold now busting with sheep in its arid climate conditions.

On our arrival back the the small but mighty Alexandra, we had a good vibe and decided tomorrow, Saturday January 12th, we would go ad perhaps find a solution to our season, but first is there any hotspots ... internet that is. We ventured back to our favorite nook - the parking lot behind "warehouse" - the equivalent to WalMart in North America, and with the computer on L'il C's lap, we searched out the wireless airwaves. Sure enough within a block we had no password needed internet signal and firefox open with speed and before I knew it, Christina was checking her email. I quickly navigated the surroundings and found a parking spot just in front of the "Video Ezy", secured Tui's legs then gazed with awe. It worked! We are tapping in to free internet where some other places can cost up to $10 an hour. We can look back now and see this was the precise moment Alexandra became our new internet home.

---