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Published: December 5th 2005
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After The Asylum i headed into Dunedin, a moderately large city (by New Zealand standards), where i parted ways with the germans. We had a good night out on the town, after which they moved onto Christchurch. I chose to head out to the Otago Peninsular, an outcrop of land nextdoor to the city renowned for its wildlife. The plan was to check out some iccle blue penguins. However, the weather was kind of lame and my hostel about 10km away from where the penguins emerge nightly from the ocean after a hard day of bobbing around and catching fishy treats. So, unfortunately, i saw no penguins. I went on a very windy bikeride up to the top point of the peninsular, the only mainland nesting site for Albatross in the whole wide world. The site itself was closed for breeding purposes, but i did manage to see a few of the huge birds drifting in on the wind - 3 metre wingspan, if you can imagine that without getting the fear, Jonesy.
I then went back to Dunedin for a couple of days, staying in a hostel with a obscenely large collection of DVDs. So that made for a cheap couple of days - i watched Batman Begins for the first time, which was pretty sweet. I made a trip to the Cadburies Chocolate factory and had a tour round the facility. Didn't get to see as much as i wanted - the tour was preceded by a short video called 'all the bits you wanted and expected to see, but we can't show you for hygene reasons'. The best bit was the discount choccy shop at the end. That was almost 2 weeks ago and i am only now getting to the end of my chocolate supply.
On from Dunedin to Oamaru, where i only spent one night. That provided ample time to visit the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony, an area of around 150 nesting boxes, along with a small standium-type thing where you can wait for the evening influx of the worlds most amusing creature.
After a quick (and largely superfluous) tour of the facility, during which the eager faces of penguin chicks peered out of the boxes, awaiting the arrival of parents, we gathered at the stadium, facing the sea and eagerly awaiting the penguins. There were more people that i expected, and not all of the had the intention of quietly waiting and watching. But it didn't seem to bother the penuins that much. Just after 9pm little 'rafts' of penguins began to form out to sea - these are clusters of bobbing penguins, floating on the water, do look a little like rafts in the dwindling light. Fairly soon they started to come ashore, cautiously climbing up from the beach, hanging around 'socialising' for a little bit, and then legging it into the nesting area, where they pottered around doing what ever penguins do until it was time for bed.
It was overwhelmingly funny to watch the little guys, of which there were around 160, and we (me and a German girl and fellow penguin admirer i met in Dunedin) stayed there for a good two hours, long after the majority of people had left, watching the penguins. On the walk back to the hostel, the noises of penguins could be clearly heard from bushes all along the path - the place is heaving with the creatures. The guy who runs the hostel said he often sees the out the back, wandering around or sheltering for the night under cars.
After that i headed up to Kaikoura, where i was to finally do a dolphin swim. God, it appears, has it in for me, as the weather was shocking. I couldn't quite believe it wasn't cancelled. We were given seasickness warnings and provided with herbal seasickness remedies (which had the pleasant effect of making my sick taste of ginger). The swells of the water were high enough to block out the horison, and i was afraid of being 'the guy who spewed' to all the others on the boat. Luckily, one guy and one girl beat me to it, quickly emptying their guts. But damn was i sick. Sick in the water (oh yeah), over the side and into a bucket. The journey back to dry land, doubled over a bucket, dry retching, i can honestly say was one of the longest 25 minutes of my life.
The actual swimming part, though rather brief (to brief, really, to justify the price tag), was pretty damn cool. For a couple of minutes, i had dolphins swimming under me - i swam really hard, and they stuck with me as i made stupid noises, as advised, in an attempt to keep the creatures interested.
I am now in Christchurch, not doing too much of anything. Yesterday i played a round of golf at the public course here with a couple from the hostel. It took us five hours to get round - a fair time considering it was both mine and the girls first ever full round of golf. After that we went and saw the new Harry Potter film, easily the best of the bunch, go see if you have not yet done so.
I fly to Australia tomorrow, which is pretty crazy. I am almost half way through my trip. I will try an do one more post on New Zealand, a sort of Jerry Springer 'Final thoughts'.
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Dan
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Git!
(which had the pleasant effect of making my sick taste of ginger). I had just taken a sip of my drink when I read that bit.