Blogs from Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 49

Wednesday July 11th, Its seems today we did nothing but drive, after waking up and packing the car we drove out of Invercargil to the Catlins conservation park on our quest to find penguins. As always we drove through plenty of beautiful scenery along the coast and arrived at our destination. For once we arrived at our destination to coincide with the proper tides, this time to see a petrified Jurassic forest. Walking along the rocks on top of the petrified forest was cool, but what we had really wanted to see was penguins, there were also frequently dolphins is the bay but we were not as excited to see those. Unfortunately we were not lucky at this beach with any wildlife, except the usual seagulls. So we decided to continue our search along the coast ... read more

So…what’s today? Where was I yesterday? What town am I even in today? I seem to rarely know anymore. But to start the week we finally enjoyed a few American delicacies that we have been craving (see picture), Mmmmmm Dr. Pepper. Unfortunately though we have been having this undying urge for Cheese-Its and they don’t exist here. And now to our week… Wednesday July 5th: We drove to Wanaka after glacier exploring in Franz Josef (see last post), and searched high and low for a hostel or somewhere to stay in the general vicinity of Wanaka. Unfortunately for us it is the school holidays here and everyone is down in this area skiing right now, so everything was booked. It’s like trying to find a cheap room in Tahoe at the last minute on Christmas vacation ... read more

I finished exams in semester 1 and Caleb got told he had to go down to Dunedin for a couple of days to work. Not wanting to miss out on the action, I insisted on tagging along and we arranged for Caleb to drop off his work rental car in Queenstown and fly out from there a few days later! While Caleb did his work I wandered the streets of Dunedin and got cold and was sleeted on (what the heck is that?!). Had been thinking about going out to see the albatrosses and the penguins but we didn't really have the time so will save that for another time. We did manage to make it to the Cadbury chocolate factory though! Was a bit cheesy and I was unimpressed that the little kid in our ... read more

Yes today I finally did it. I resigned from my job. Now it is official, there is no going back. I"m on my way to Sweden, Croatia and of course Santorini in Greece. My big adventure will begin in earnest at the end of July when I fly to Gothenburg, Sweden to see my brother. Yahoo!!!!... read more

Reflections on Life Down Under Now then. Stato that I am - I thought I'd summarise my trip to the Southern Hemisphere with some interesting (or not) statistics on my trip. I'll begin with an observation that I'm sure we've all seen (to our disgust) which is the rise in petrol prices. In November 2005, when I arrived in New Zealand, the forecourt price for a litre of regular unleaded was $139. Now it is $171 - that's a rise of 32cents (23%). That's enough to make you throw-up for starters. Hard Work? You decide - Stats on 6 Months in NZ *16 Games of Futsal - won 15, drawn 1 *19 Games of 11-aside Soccer (won 15, lost 4) *2 Man of the Match Awards (yeah 2, though the second one was a sympathy vote ... read more