Apparently I didn't learn my lesson before and got into Dunedin without booking a hostel. I walked up this incredibly steep road, in the rain, carrying my probably 70 lbs of stuff to get to the hostel I had planned, only to find it was closed for the winter. I walked back down the hill to the next closest hostel. I checked in, settled in, and went to reception to figure out what to do. If i hurried, I could do the Cadbury tour, and i convinced a girl standing at reception to do the Speights Brewery tour with me later. Great rainy day activities. The cadbury tour was excellent. Lots of free chocolate. At one point we got liquid chocolate samples and he poured too many so I went back for seconds. And then when there were more left, I ignored all the judgemental looks and went for thirds. MMMM so good.
Hannah met me at the Brewery and we had another excellent tour. At
the end they put us in the room with the taps and left us alone in there
for 30 minutes. We met Glen and his dad who were there to celebrate his
21st birthday (apparently its still a big year over here even though it
doesn't mean anything). Hannah and I became fast friends.
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| Hannah and I enjoying our beer. Ironically Glen and his dad are in the background, and this is before we had met them. |
Since it was still cold and rainy the next day we signed up to do a
wildlife tour (apparently its good because the animals actually like
that weather, but it was MISERABLE). We went to the albatross center,
which is rare for some reason (only inland nesting site in the world/NZ?
Maybe?). Unfortunately we didn't see any Albatrosses, but we did see
the storm coming straight for us. And our guide filled us in on some
juicy albatross gossip that may or may not have been made up. Then we
headed out to some private farmland to see a colony of fur seals. That
was fun because since its not mating season its only females and their
young, but there was a male there who forgot it wasn't mating season, so
it was cool seeing the female try and fight him away.
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| From the albatross center. Can you see the storm coming? |
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| Fur Seals! |
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| So many fur seals! But they blend in so well! How many can you find? |
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| SOOOO cold |
We hiked to the other side of the hill and stood maybe 15 feel from
some ENORMOUS sea lions and watched them play, then walked a little
further down the beach to the yellow eyed penguins. They are VERY
private animals, so they are hard to find, but this happened to be a
social area for penguins looking for partners. It was so entertaining
watching them swim ashore and hop along the rocks. We were entertained
by all the courting routines. They then climbed even further up the hill
to nest for the night. Which happened to be in the middle of a sheep
farm. Thats something I never thought I would see.
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| Penguins! |
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| The one on the right with his arms back is courting the one on his left. |
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| can you see the penguins on the hill? |
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| blurry, but an absolutely hysterical picture |
Hannah and I went out with James (another guy from our hostel) and we ran into Glen and his dad again. Seeing as it was a Tuesday night, we were pretty much the only ones in every bar, but we all got along awesome and that was probably my favorite group of people I have met the whole trip.
The next day I did a scenic train ride which was pretty cool. Hannah and I decided to watch Lord of the Rings that night since I had never seen it (shock) and she hadn't seen it yet in NZ. We were both so tired though we didn't make it through the end. In the morning I went to Baldwin street (the steepest residential street in the world) and walked to the bus stop, which i thought was just down the hill I had walked up, but it turned out it was like a mile and some on the other side of town.
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| Train Station |
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| Baldwin Street |
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| The sidewalk is stairs |
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| from the top |
PENGUINS!
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