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Published: April 21st 2009
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penguin reserve
This is where the penguins come back in after feeding for the night. We saw three on the beach...one that was coming in as we approached! Yet another busy, busy day...I'm finding it harder and harder to come on here and write but no worries, I will! I'm sitting here drinking Vodka and Sprite Zero...in case you all wanted to know that. It's been helping us to unwind after the day...
Today we had a continental breakfast in our B&B. Even though they don't serve a hot breakfast at this B&B, there is no shortage of food... There were fresh muffins, cereal, toast, fruit, yogurt, jam, peanut butter, margarine, milk, coffee, and tea. After breakfast we headed out to town to see a few things we had picked out the evening before.
First we shopped and then we went to the Cadbury Chocolate Factory and got a tour. It was really, really cool. We got tons of free samples...
Afterwards we headed towards the Otago Peninsula because we wanted to see the penguins. Our electronic navigator (we nicknamed it "NZ") led us the wrong way so we ended up at a Nursery/Cafe to turn around and decided to eat lunch there. We swear...EVERYONE here is vegetarian and gluten-free friendly...even random cafes in the middle of nowhere sell gluten-free breads and meals.
Once we
figured out which direction we needed to go, we headed towards the penguins once again...this time for real. The road wound back and forth, back and forth, and one one side was a cliff and the other, ocean. People were driving very aggressively and passing me on curves, hills, etc. It was ridiculous! Mom was freaking out again. We missed the road to see the penguins and dead-ended at the Westpac Royal Albatross Centre. We saw some seals there (8 or so) and Albatross too.
We got directions to the penguins (called the Penguin Place) and found it in time for one of their last tours. The tour was FANTASTIC! We learned all about the Yellow-Eyed Penguins, which are an endangered species (only about 4,000 left in the world) and they reside only in this location and one other city in New Zealand (Aukland). This was a reserve where they trap and hunt any predators in the area to try and preserve the penguins, although they aren't allowed to do anything about the sea lions as they are endangered themselves. The reserve has 30 or so trenches dug into the ground with camoflauge over the top and the tourists
Dunedin Railway Station
world-renown architecture walk through them so as not to disturb the penguins. At the end of each trench is a place to view the penguins from up-close, with only our faces visible so our size is not frightening to them.
After the penguin tour we headed back down the crazy shore drive and found a Thai restaurant in town for dinner.
Tomorrow we're going to see the steepest road in the world, which is in town. I told my mom, "wouldn't it be cool to be able to say you walked up the steepest road in the world?!" and she said, "or walked down...". haha!
FYIs
People here use "Entre" for our "Appetizers" and "Main" for our "Entre". It makes sense, actually.
Here they say "the expiry date" instead of our "expiration date".
Here their cold and hot water taps are all separate, so if you want to wash your face you're SOL. Just kidding. What I do is I turn both on and cup my hands and put cold water into them and then add a little hot to it so that it's warm. Otherwise you're either freezing or scalding your face off.
Also, the toilets have two
flushers on the back (except public toilets). I still haven't figured out what each one does. They both seem to do the same thing.
Ashley
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During the Cadbury Factory tour, we learned that New Zealanders each consume 4 kilos of chocolate per year; Australians - 8; English - 12; and, you guessed it, Americans eat the most chocolate - 16 kilos per year!
Ashley did not mention that during parts of that harrowing drive along the ocean today, the speed was posted at 70 kph, or about 48 mph. It should have been more like 15 mph!
I was asked by someone at home to determine if the toilets here flush counter clockwise or clockwise like they do in our hemisphere. Can't tell - they're very green here and the toilets are the low-water flush kind that empty straight down. The water in the sink, however, seems to empty counter clockwise.
Well back to my glass of wine.
-Nancy
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I would like to add that I'm pretty sure that the toilet-flushing-the-other-way thing is a myth as the Coriolis Effect does not have an effect on small bodies of water (which includes
toilet water). I don't know if this has been officially proved or disproved by Myth Busters yet, though. Who knows!!!
Ashley
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Kathy
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Cute pictures! I wouldn't have been able to drive so close to the ocean and cliff. Do you ever just talk with someone in town about NZ? I would want to do that, but you know me--I'm too awkward :/