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So after realizing that time was running out in my time on the land of the long white cloud, I had to finish up at work (yippee) and get back on the road. The next portion of my travel tales are on the Bottom bus seeing what the Deep South of New Zealand had to offer. So after being picked up in Queenstown where I had to say goodbye to my wonderful little flat to return to the joys of hostel living, the first stop was Dunedin. The bottom bus is affiliated with the kiwi experience but are smaller buses which I much prefer, the first day there was only the 6 of us on the bus so we all gelled quite quickly which was good as first stop is in Dunedin is Baldwin Street - the steepest street in the world and I’m not exaggerating, the Guinness book of records say so and we all know that they are like Gods of all factual books. So we made our assent and if I do say so myself I did quite well, damn brilliantly in fact, The tedious hours of housekeeping have made me into a woman of steel who could
have pretty much any fictional superhero in a fight (I admit that the fact that they are fictional leans in my favour but you understand my thinking, don’t you???) so I made it up only complaining once and only nearly collapsing - family you should be proud, maybe even erect a statue in my honour but don’t tell me it can be my coming home surprise.
So what else to do in Dunedin - due to the time we arrived and the fact I only had the one night there due to not being at all organized, we didn’t have much of a choice so decided to do a day of culture - art galleries and museums it was, the fact these are free is a major bonus. first stop the Art Gallery, after being told my the nice guy at the counter that the top floor would be what I would like, I made my way up there - I was disappointed. I fully admit that I’m no way arty and creativism (is that a word?) seems to have not appeared in my genes in order to make way for my other great traits surely. but here we saw
ice melting in a glass and 5 blank pieces of paper with only pencil writing on the bottom stating "speck of dust at 6.07, 6.24, 6.37, 6.49 and 7.01 - What?????????, they were completely blank - I don’t get it and I’m telling you of the ones that I could understand. quickly realized that art gallery was not for me and made my way to the museums which were much more interesting telling about the European settlers that came to the region, maybe you can guess my the town name but there is a major Scottish influence and you can see it as you walk around, some of the architecture is amazing especially the train station which I spent ages in, it is a beautiful building.
The next day it was off wildlife watching in the Catlin’s - but just as we got on the bus, the heavens opened and it rained non stop all day - my clothes are not at all suitable for this weather but as I’m off to Asia soon don’t want to be forking out on new clothes, I’m such a tight backpacker, beer I can afford clothes to keep me warm and dry obviously
not a necessity. But even though it was freezing, the weather didn’t keep us down for long and the wildlife watching was a success, we saw Seals aplenty, sea lions, dolphins and penguins; it was a really good day. Didn’t get great pictures of the dolphins and penguins though as we were quite far away but it was great to see them, There was another tour group that arrived when we went to see the penguins and I felt like screaming at them - they didn’t give them their space at all, they went running after them, taking photos with flashes even though their eyes are really sensitive, I really think that tour guides should make people keep there distance, penguins are so timid and due to people like these and their actions, the penguins may go away. It really annoyed me but you couldn’t say anything to them. but I didn’t let them get me down for long and we made our way to Invercargill where we bunked for the night, the bus decide we would treat ourselves and have dinner in the pub next door as we got a discount, it was beautiful food and great company and
though it wasn’t a mad one I had a great night.
The next day we were onto Te anu and spent our day getting our hands dirty, first stop to make paua shell jewellery and it was a success, I decide to go with a simple design as to foresaid non creativity and it worked into my favour, I’m really quite proud of it. After what seems like hours polishing it to perfection we jumped back onto the bus and headed to the farm to shear some sheep, of which I’m now a bit of a pro however I don’t think the farmer believed me and kept a close eye on me but I did a good if what patchy job and shorn my first whole sheep, its hard work and after playing with the sheepdogs we headed for a well earned lunch in the Sausage Capital of New Zealand, this is quite a claim to fame, there was a yearly sausage contest to be held and the first year Tuatapere won, there has never been another sausage competition but Tuatapere will not let go of the title. When we got to Te anu I was so tired that after we arrived I promptly fell asleep which meant the next day I was raring to go, it was a big day - we were off to Milford Sounds.
Milford sounds has a big reputation, people say not going to see it is like not seeing the pyramids when in Egypt. As with the last few days the weather is not great, it’s actually extremely cold, snowing in fact. the weather casted an eerie feel around and unfortunately due to it being so cold the waterfalls were not as impressive as they could be. We boarded the boat for our cruise with our all you could eat buffet, we were happy campers. yes it was beautiful but all of new Zealand is so scenic and beautiful that I think i'm becoming hard to please and didn’t see what all the hype was about, maybe it was the weather maybe just my frame of mind. Please don’t misinterpret this if you are planning to go here, it is worth here it’s just I was expecting spectacular and I got greatness. We got back on our bus for the long trip back to Qtown where I would have my final weekend; it was bound to be messy.
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