Blogs from Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

Après un réveil difficile (souvenez vous de la pizza Chili...) on a repris la route. Cette fois l'arrêt s'appelle Dunedin : sympa, étudiant, océan etc Pour la première nuit direction Sandfly Bay sur la péninsule de l'Otago. Pour cette première nuit de vrai camping : pattes mayo, bières, bières, bières et beaucoup de vent pour être sur de passer la soirée dans l'auto... Ah oui j'avais oublié: en nouvelle Zélande il y a des paysages magnifiques, des gens très sympa, une diversité naturel incomparable mais ce que personne ne dit c'est qu'il y a presque tout le temps du vent... ... read more

Whoever said Wellington was hilly with suburbs perched on hillsides hadn’t ever been to Dunedin. OK, the main shopping area is flat to undulating but as soon as you get back a street or two to the west it is generally straight up and for us driving up to Maori Hill to meet up with my cousin Mary and Aunty Bunty for morning tea tested the gears of the car. As we left George Street Gretchen was saying that we could have walked from the hotel but she changed her mind within 100 metres as the road climbed steeply to Highgate. We spent a very special and enjoyable couple of hours catching up on the past decades over coffee and macaroons showing off pictures of our family and talking about our families meetings over the years. ... read more

September 29 – Before I start this day, I should talk about how we came to be at Brian and Diane’s home. Almost three years ago, I attended the Association of Personal Historian’s conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is a conference that brings together people who are interested in collecting, recording and publishing the stories we often cherish, but don’t always write down. Most of the people at the conference come from across the United States with a smaller contingent from Canada, and even a smaller number from other countries. Two of these people were Brian and Diane, and I happened to sit at their table. In the course of conversation, I mention that I had an aunt in Auckland, and someday hoped to visit New Zealand. Well, not needing any further explanation, they pulled ... read more

Pulling up the blinds revealed another stunning Central Otago day although this morning there was a touch of frost visible on the grass with the tablet telling us the outside temperature was – 2C. However another fine ,sunny day is in prospect and have an adventure into the unknown ahead of us as we head for Lawrence and some unravelling of more of Gretchen’s family history in the historic town of Lawrence. A slightly earlier start after breakfast will mean we have enough time to do what we have to in the Lawrence district before we drive onto Dunedin for our final accommodation stop before we head home on Wednesday. It has been a very pleasant time in Alexandra and our hosts C&M have done themselves proud and would score absolute top marks if we were ... read more

September 28 – After leaving Christchurch, our first stop was in the Victorian Precinct of Oamaru. This is an area filled with fabulous shops in turn-of-the-century buildings selling Victorian arts and crafts, clothing, and souvenirs. Many of the shops had people who were dressed up in Victorian costumes as well as artisans right on site, one of whom was and interesting chap (Brian had told us about) named Michael O’Brien. He operates a book binder shop – a truly unique profession in this day of print-on-demand. Of course, there was also the Whiskey Shop which David found interesting, but not nearly enough time to explore (read: he didn’t do any tasting.) We did however, do some tasting at Annie’s Tea House. I don’t usually have dessert, but it’s one of those things I love doing when ... read more