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Published: August 7th 2007
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From Invercargill we drove up to Dunedin via the Catlins coast, one of the least visited parts of the country. Unfortunately the wet weather meant that we couldn´t really see anything and the thousands of penguins/seals and whales all seemed to be out on a day trip somewhere so it was sort of a wasted journey. Dunedin was a cool place, a university town based on the same street layout as Edinburgh and also means Edinburgh in Gaelic. We stayed in a nice hostel called ¨Hogwartz¨, with huge rooms and a nice dining area with a log stove. There was however a neurotic manager who kept very strict rules, just as Sam was about to put another log on the fire which was about to go out, she shouted ¨No! Guests aren´t allowed to touch the stove!¨, it was said with such force that Sam dropped the log and couldn´t stop laughing as he couldn´t remember being told off like that since he was about 5 and threw a gold ball through the kitchen window!
From Dunedin we had a day out to the Otago Peninsula, where you can see a variety of sea birds including the albatross, but
Being Born
Enough to put anyone off childbirth! again we didn´t see any, so our luck must be wearing out.
We stopped in to see the Moeraki boulders on our way back north, strange massive boulders that have been eroded out of the cliffs. It is only the big ones that still remain as apparently the rest which were big enough to carry have been stolen for garden ornaments!
We did catch up with the yellow-eyed penguins at a place called Bushy Beach in Omaru. We stood for nearly three hours to watch the little guys finally emerge from the sea and make their way up the beach. They were quite a distance away so you couldn´t really take any photos and we were about to leave when a local man said that we should stay as they make their way up the banks to their nests. After about 15 minutes we could hear lots of squawking and then they all started to appear running along little tunnels, it was great, worth the wait..well I thought so, Sam wanted to go about two and a half hours before.
The next few days we spent with Emma and Simon in Fairley (who used
Otago Peninsula
View from the top of the Otago Peninsula. to work at Inver) - we had bizarrely bumped into them a couple of days earlier in a supermarket in Dunedin! Their house has fantastic views across to the mountains, it was lovely and warm to play outside with the kids and even have a BBQ! We have been very lucky with the weather, it has been the hottest May in NZ since records began, this time last year everywhere was covered in snow.
We headed back to Christchurch from here and even though Tarsh and Rich had moved out since we last saw them in a vain attempt to get rid of us, we managed to track them down. As a present to them bought back and gave them colds that we had..who says that the Scots are tight! The next couple of weeks were spent trying to sell the hearse, which we eventually got rid of. It had become a bit of a curse, so we were relived to be rid of it. We spent a great weekend in Hamner Springs, where the boys went out mountain biking - Rich and his brother Leighton are the sportiest guys you´ll ever meet, so i was very relieved
Penguin Dash
Place your bets please... when Sam returned without any broken bones..although he did go over the handle bars on a couple of occasions! Meanwhile the girls, Me, Tarsh and Becs walked Sprocket up a very big hill (honest it was) and went shopping in the nice boutique shops. We ended the weekend with a soak in the hot springs, it´s a hard life!
Tarsh also took us on some good day trips, which included the best cafes in Christchurch - we have never eaten so many cakes, so between the cafes and Tarsh home-baking we are now worryingly hooked on sugar! We did venture up to Kaikoura to check out the migrating hump-back whales but alas the seas were too rough. This just leaves us to say a very big ¨thank you¨ to Rich and Tarsh for their hospitality, it´s been great staying with you and we can´t wait to return the favour.
So, now after a change of mind we are not staying in New Zealand for as long as we originally thought and we are off to South America - first stop Santiago, Chile! We have a couple of key phrases learnt;
¨Quisiera una botella de
vino tinto por favor¨ I would like a bottle of red wine please
and more importantly,
¨Donde esta el bano?¨ Where is the toilet?
Adios Amigos!
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Hayley
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Bien Viaje
Hay un tiempo fantastico. Sus Ojos, y sus corazones a seran muy feliz. Hay mucho sol y mucho vino Besos Hayley x