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Published: January 17th 2010
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Sunset at Pilot Beach Dunedin
This is where the penguins came in. Apologies for the long delay between blogs but I have had an interesting few days moving around a lot and not much time to dedicate to writing the next instalment. After leaving Te Anau we headed to Invercargill where our intention was to boat over to Stewart Island and spend 7-10 days hiking around the track there. However, on my arrival there and after a bit of probing about the track and the anticipated weather forecast I made a decision. The island was due heavy rainfall for most of the time we planned to be there, and apparently some parts of the track were already at a stage where you were wading through mud up to your waist. Obviously this would only get worse with more rain. If the hike would be 3 or 4 days I could probably deal with it, but I just was not keen on the idea of spending 10 days caked in mud and soaked through. So it was at this point after about 12 weeks of working and travelling with the two Canadian chaps that we decided to part ways, as they still wanted to go on the track. I wished them good luck and
headed on my own to Dunedin which was a large student town on the South East coast. I was looking forward to this stop as I had previously been told that this is a great spot to see penguins, and lots of them.
I headed for the Information centre to find out how I could get out to the penguins and was devastated to find out the only way to do it, due to my lack of car, was to go on a tour at a cost of $80!! I moped back to the hostel but ended up chatting to a couple of Irish girls who happened to have their own car and were going to see the penguins, you have got to love this way of life! In I hopped and off we went in search of these cuddly creatures. The information I had been given was get to the beach for dusk, because it is at this time that all the penguins swarm the beach to return to their nests on shore for the night. We arrived a little early but managed to spot a few seals hanging around with pups of their own which killed some
Photo 4
Yes thats a big fat seal right behind me. time. However, the penguins did not end up showing until about 10.30pm when light was very minimal and you could only make out faint silhouettes of these tiny (in fact the world’s smallest) penguins. However, to our absolute delight they headed right up the beach and right by us determined to reach their nests. After waiting about 2 hours in the cold evening we were relieved to get to see so many, and began heading back up to the car. On the way back up we literally had penguins waddling inches from our feet, it was incredibly surreal to see these creatures just wandering around in their own natural environment.
I planned to try and fly direct from Dunedin to Wellington the next day by the way of a standby flight to keep it nice and cheap. However, I gave the airline a call first to enquire how it works as I was unsure of the details, but I was devastated to find out that they in fact did not do it, and the flight would cost me $250. Panicking a little I struggled to come up with an alternative, and a cheap one at that. In the end
I managed to get a bus to Christchurch for $18 then after one nights stop there involving a quick trip to a pub and a fantastic blues duo, I caught a flight from Christchurch to Wellington for just $60. I was made up.
I have been in Wellington for about 5 days now and moved into a great little house in a fantastic location overlooking the city. There are a great couple of other people here that are a really good laugh, and with rent only costing $90 a week I have once again landed on my feet. I am job hunting like crazy as my money needs topping up but am hopeful something will come along soon enough. Once I get my job sorted it’s time to work, work, work and save, save, save. I anticipate at least 8 weeks here before I head off around the rest of the North Island to explore. As with when I was in Blenheim I will probably not be blogging whilst I am working as there won’t be anything of interest occurring, but if anything should happen I will let you all know.
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Dad
non-member comment
Wise decesion.
Jon, Think you made wise decesion re Stewart Island. Now you are in "wet and windy welington. At least it is a big town/city (and in my days nurses galore.) so you stand more chance of picking up work and maybe have a Assume you are sharing a house with other people. If you think you will be there for some time please forward address and land line phone number. Are you broad band connected. If so lets make a date to Skype on a regular basis. Hope the job hunting goes well. What are you looking for. Perhaps take anything to fill the coffers and then be a bit particular