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

Nothing like a painfully bad pun on the NZ weather to start a blog entry. As you've guessed its wet here, and so there's been no chances to go to the beach, surf or any of that stuff lately. Still we did go to a big rugby game yesterday, which was mental but pretty good. Very rowdy, even before we'd left one girl had to go to hospital she was bleeding so bad from a glass cut on her foot; then one of our friends saw this and fainted from the amount of blood she saw and had to be hydrated and looked after. Definitely not the best start, it was also ridiculously busy and people were pretty much shoving each out of the way to get on the free coaches that showed up to take ... read more

Geo: -45.8746, 170.503Tonight we're at Larnach Castle in Dunedin after waking this morning in Te Anau on the west coast of the southern island. We rose to a cloudless sky over Lake Te Anau (forgive the constant weather reports but we so appreciate the sun after the rainy beginning to our vacation), breakfasted with the other patrons at the Shakespeare House ("Eggs Benni with Salmon"), and headed south by about 9 AM. We drove as far south as the little hilly road would carry us, straight to a DOC trailhead that departed from private property, followed a skinny trail through the dense jungle vegetation, and emerged on the other side at the Tasman Sea. The coast was comprised of white, fist-sized rocks in perfect spheres that crashed together with each turn of the waves in a ... read more

Rachy again Dunedin is quite a large place. It feels bigger than Christchurch to me, perhaps due to its university, and the fact that our stay coincided with the freshers’ induction week. (Now I know what 500 teenagers dressed in togas maurading through a city centre look like..) Our campsite was on the edge of town, next to the beach, though we never saw it. There was certainly no feeling of seaside where we were. However, just a short drive onto the Otago peninsula there were many natural delights in store for us. On our first full day in the city we headed out, first visiting the Albatross centre at Taiaroa Head, where the birds failed to provide much of a display for us. (We might have seen one - might have been a big gull…) ... read more

אז את הבוקר פתחנו דווקא במוסך.. מסתבר ששני הגלגלים הקדמיים שחוקים מדיי.. בכל מקרה, ויני, הניו זילנדי המקסים שהיינו אצלנו ביומיים האחרונים, דיבר עם איזה חבר שלו שהצליח לסדר לנו שני גלגלים כמעט חדשים במחיר טוב. איזה מזל שיש את ויני בעולם.. כמה שהוא עזר לנו... אחרי שסיימנו במוסך התחלנו את הנסיעה לכיוון הקייטלינס, שזה בעצם קטע כביש ארוך שאמורים לראות בו דברים שלא רואים כל יום - פינגווינים, אריות ים, דולפינים וכו'.. אמורים... תכל'ס, כל מה שהצלחנו לראות ביום הזה זה אריות ים, והרבה..כולל אחד בגודל הרכב שלנו בערך, ובחוף אחד שעצרנו בו הצלחנו לראות גם כמה סנפירים של דולפינים ששחו להם בים, אבל לצערנו לא יותר מזה, למרות שגם זה הספק נחמד.. מה שכן, הנוף היה ממש יפה , למרות שהיה מעונן והראות הייתה לא מי יודע מה.. בכל אופן, בסיומה של נסיעה די ... read more

The Cadbury's Factory is awesome , we struggled there , Collen our guide was this excitable old lady who handed out chocolate bars if you answered her questions right. I got one, Red didn't .... she claimed she wasn't jealous but if you saw her jumping up and down answering questions, and hissing "I answered it first!" to me, you would think better! The factory itself is really interesting, totally captured my attention and really it's no surprise as Cadbury's has been part of my life for like, ever!! The bit on Easter Eggs really captured our attention...maybe because we really felt the loss of them this year, no eggs in Hong Kong or Beijing...devestating! As we were heading up to see chocolate bars being made, namely the most popular in New Zealand, the Moro, Irene ... read more