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Published: April 20th 2009
Timaru
long walk to the beach...but we really wanted to see it...Well we have internet again! Yay. We're in Dunedin, which is a Scottish town in the South Island. There are manyyyyyyyyy stores here...it reminds me of main street in Ann Arbor, only 100 times as long! It goes on for miles and miles. We got here in the early evening so we went exploring a bit before it got dark. We've done tonsssssssssss of walking.
Backtracking a bit...this morning we were in Timaru and we visited the white sand beach in town and went shopping before heading out towards Dunedin. On the way we visited a the Blue Penguin Colony in Omaru and we went hiking but didn't end up seeing any penguins (they come back in to shore at night). Mom didn't want to hike all of the trails so she went back and I continued out on my own. The trails were on the edge of tall cliffs, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. They were incredibly steep and I was in flip-flops which was a bad idea but I only slipped once so we're ok! I climbed to the top of the mountain and saw a large dog without an owner or a collar and it was coming towards
Penguins, Boulders, Dunedin 002
mom thinks this might be an Aviary-in-construction me so I freaked out a bit and turned around but no one was around. Luckily it stopped following me after a while. It was probably friendly. After that I climbed back down the mountain to the ocean and found a cove with Pillow Lava, which is formed when molten basalt flows over the sea floor. To get pictures of it I had to run into the cove from the trail on the hill and time it so that I could get back to the safety of the trail before the waves crashed in because otherwise they would carry me back out with them! haha it took a few tries but I got it. Anything for a good picture! Good thing my mom wasn't there or she would have been freaking out.
Afterwards we headed for the Moeraki Boulders, which are strange large rocks on the beach that are perfectly round.
We then headed towards Dunedin and made it here early evening, which I explained about in the beginning of the entry.
We miss everyone a lot. I hope you are all doing well.
Ashley
________
I haven't been on in a while. The service
I attended at Christchurch Cathedral was a Celtic mass, in both Maori and English. It was very interesting, with many similarities to our Episcopal services. A few differences as well. We had tea afterwards, of course.
Today in Timaru, I met a woman who was cuddling a 5-week old puppy - I think a German Shephard, but I'm not sure. She asked me if I thought she could take "Tora" with her into a government office. After we talked a bit, she saw Ashley and said "Is that your daughter? She's a stunner, that one!" Ashley, of course, demurely said "thank you."
We sure are walking a lot. I'm so glad I brought my tennies. Dunedin is the Edinburough of New Zealand. There's a Robert Burns statute in the centre of town, with his back to the Anglican church and facing the local pub! Tomorrow we're taking a drive along the Otago peninsula to see several things, including a Maori meeting house and a rare penguin colony. The ethnic restaurants here are truly amazing - especially the Japanese and Thai ones.
Nancy
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