Curious City Streets of Dunedin

On the 28th, Jos and I woke up in the morning and set out for Baldwin Street, the steepest residential street in the world. It took us around half an hour to get there.





Read this; it allows me to be lazy and not explain Baldwin Street.



Walking all the way up the street was tough - I was definitely wheezing by the time we reached the top, and luckily someone had the good sense to install a water fountain beside the bench at the top for people like me who didn't bring anything to drink. We walked up the road itself - the sidewalk is stairs, that's how steep this hill is!

Can you spot Josephine's head?



After Baldwin street, we went to Alec Avenue, world famous for the crazy architectural designs of the man who built the houses there in the 1920s. I suppose he wasn't just an architect, but a bit of an artist really.






Well, Jos left Dunedin the next morning on a bus to Christchurch. She spent a couple days there then flew back to Brisbane for her second semester at the University of Queensland. Her blog is at http://josephinestheory.blogspot.com/.

Our West Coast road trip adventure continues

So, we continued driving from Fantail Falls, with the next planned stop at Thunder Creek Falls. However, within about 3 minutes (literally - I checked the photo times on my computer) of pulling away, Paco slowed down in front of us and drove onto the shoulder. Instead of stopping though, Paco slowly but surely gently slid all the way into the ditch where he came to a rest. We pulled off a few metres further on where there was a safe place to park and ran back to see what mischief they were trying to get into.

In photo 1, you can see me asking them where they learned to drive. Jos took the first two photos with my camera.



After everyone climbed out the passenger side, we began discussing how to get the car out of the mud it was now stuck in.



Within seconds of us stopping, a campervan driving by stopped and the gentleman driving, a tourist named Michael (not sure where he was from, but I would guess either Scandinavia or Holland) came with a first aid kit, as he thought someone might be injured. Luckily, Paco was going about 2km/h when he hit the ditch so no one was hurt at all.

We attempted to get the car out in reverse while everyone pushed, but to no avail. However, Michael, Elliott, and Esperanza got a fair amount of mud on them from the front wheel spinning in reverse.



Lucky for us, about one minute later a 4x4 came by and pulled over. He immediately got out a tow rope and told us to hook it to the back of Paco. We found a spot that seemed like it wouldn't pull the bumper off, and Blake hooked up the rope.



The 4x4 guy then slowly drove forward, pulling Paco out of the ditch with Elliott at the wheel to keep the wheels turned properly.



Amazingly, what could easily have been a 4 hour wait for a tow truck to pull Paco out turned into under 10 minutes!

We were on the road immediately and soon arrived at Thunder Creek Falls where Blake, Elliott, and I attempted to cross the river. However, it was bloody cold and we couldn't make it all the way. Jos took this photo of our attempt:



I took a few pics of Blake and Elliott in their valiant but ultimately unsuccessful effort to get across. They made it farther than me, as my wussy feet were in too much pain from the cold water to continue without falling over and dunking my camera.



Ooh - scaled version showing the littleness of us mere humans in comparison to the waterfall.



At our next stop, Roaring Billy, Esperanza decided to get in touch with the flora and spent some time in a tree.



We continued driving the rest of the day to arrive in Franz Josef Glacier (the town is called Franz Josef Glacier, the glacier is called Franz Josef glacier with a small G) by night.

On our way, we drove along the West Coast for a while, and I thought these trees were really nifty.



There was a lookout point with public toilets at one point too. This pic is not the toilets.



And, as the sun went down, we happened to be right by a beach so I forced Elliott to pull over for a photo. We could actually see the sun moving at a quick rate, and within 5 minutes it was gone.



The next day we went to see the glaciers!

To be continued...

The road to freedom (and the West Coast)

So, we decided to take a road trip in New Zealand. We spent 3 days driving from Dunedin to the West Coast and back. Here's what we got up to:

We arrived in Wanaka for the first night after about 4 hours of driving, and phoning various hostels discovered it was high season. After much phoning and driving around, we found a single bed in a YHA hostel. Later we found a single bed at Holly's Hostel. We found no more beds. So, after pulling straws, Jos got to sleep at the YHA (the lady there said to her and Elliott "We prefer the female"), Elliott got to sleep at Holly's, and Vania and I were relegated to the car. 6'1" guy sleeping in a tiny Mitsubishi Lancer does not really work, and I ended up with just over 3 hrs sleep, but the morning greeted us nicely with this sunny weather:



However, within the hour it took to collect Jos and Elliott from their respective hostels, the weather had turned. It became super windy, cold, and the clouds descended on us. The previously calm Lake Wanaka turned rough, with waves about a metre high at the shore.



We met up with 4 friends of ours who had arrived later than us the previous night (they had cleverly prebooked their accomodation) and drove outside town to Puzzling World where we got into all sorts of mischief. First we played with the little puzzles. Check out the little kid in the background!



Then we walked through the hall of holograms, where Elliott (6'5") magically appears shorter than Vania (5'2").



They even had one of those nifty (tacky) electricity globes.



In one room they removed the gravity partially so you could stand at a crazy angle without falling over!



When a few of us needed to use the restrooms, this is what we found:



Blake and Elliott were high school bullies and, having been in university for some time now, felt the need to relive past glories by dunking Blanca into the loo.



After Puzzling World, Elliott and I caught a flight to Germany and had a beer in the alps before returning to Wanaka to meet up with the others.



Our convoy (2 cars - Paco [theirs] and Fidel [ours - he's red]) left Wanaka toward Franz Josef Glacier. On the way, I took some scenery shots. Sorry if they're boring, but I like them.









We stopped at Fantail Falls first, where we saw a waterfall. Strange, that. Here, Team Fidel comrades took the opportunity for a propaganda photo shoot.



However, as a gesture of good will, a representative from Team Fidel took this promo photo with a member of Team Paco.



To be continued...

Albatrosses, Sea Lions, and Penguins

On the 20th of July, Jos and I decided to go with my friend Ruth to visit the most well known brewery in the South Island, Speight's Brewery. The brewery is about a 20 minute walk from my flat - convenient.

Speight's is the only gravity-fed brewery still in operation in the Southern Hemisphere (one of very very few in the entire world), so the tour took us through several floors, showing the various stages of the ingredients passing from the top of the brewery all the way down to the bottom.




Out of the 6 beers we tasted at the end of the tour, my favourite was the Chocolate Ale, a very very limited release for the chocolate festival that was going on a couple weeks ago. None was bottled, and only 2 or 3 bars in Dunedin were given the right to serve it. It really tasted like chocolate, but at the same time like beer. Unlike the chocolate cheese we tried in Australia which was pretty gross, this was really delicious.

The following day, Jos and I decided to check out the Taiaroa Head Royal Albatross Colony. It's the only mainland albatross colony in the world! My flatmate, Erin, gave us permission to borrow her car to get there, and Vania drove. We paid $25 for the tour, and it was interesting. It wasn't worth the $25, as the actual bird watching portion consisted of watching about 5 albatrosses sitting on their lazy butts for about half an hour. Apparently there's normally a 70% chance of seeing them fly, but the wind died down right before we got there so they weren't flying.

Albatrosses have a wingspan of about 3 metres! That's 10 feet! Unlike most birds, the albatross can fold his wings into THREE sections, not just two. Crazy, eh? Imagine having arms that hang to your ankles and having a second elbow...

The weather was nice so I took a few pics of the sun as it lowered toward the horizon.





Here's one of the albatrosses just chilling, shaking it's wings a bit for whatever reason.



After the albatross colony, we drove to Sandfly Bay, where I have gone several times in the past to see the rare Yellow-Eyed Penguin. We got there as the sun had disappeared over the mountains in the west, and the moon had just come up over the cliffs to the east.



On our walk from one end of the beach to where the penguin watching hut is, we bumped into several sea lions - one of which was not too happy about our presence and chased us a bit. Jos had to take a back route through the sand dunes to get around him safely. There aren't supposed to be any sea lions living at Sandfly Bay - normally there are only seals, but this is the second time I've seen them. They eat penguins, so hopefully they move out soon or have an easier time eating fish.



We saw a lot of penguins - around 10! In past visits, the most I ever saw was 5 or 6. We were really lucky to see one come out of the water to shore very clearly, waddling on the sand and hopping on the rocks.

To be continued...

Melbourne - last days in Australia

So we arrived in Melbourne (pronounced Melbin) after our great ocean road trip, and did some sightseeing.

We walked down Batman street to the water first. Batman founded Melbourne. Not joking.



In 1835, a Tasmanian man by the name of Batman sailed up the Yarra River and founded Batmania. The British colonial administration didn't agree though, and the name didn't stick. He died in 1839 of syphilis at the age of 37.

Down by the water was one of many pieces of public art we saw in Melbourne. The city is full of art in public places and it really makes it more interesting.



Marcus, Ron, and Stan walk over/through an artistic bridge/tunnel structure.



We visited the Old Melbourne Gaol as well, which is the oldest prison in Melbourne. It was a really interesting museum setup, and I spent over 2 hours in there.

Ron decided to try on the replica armour helmet, similar to the one used by Ned Kelly and his friends in a shootout in Australia that spawned the biggest folk legend in Australian history. The problem with the armour was that the police shooting them eventually realized that the armour didn't cover the legs, and 28 bullets in his legs later, Ned Kelly was captured alive. He was hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol and we saw a great reenactment of his last days by some local actors.




Jos and I did some walking around town on a beautiful day, and followed our hostel's advice to get a free city view - we took the elevator to the 35th floor of the Hotel Sofitel, walked into the appropriate gender segregated bathrooms, and took photos of the city. The bathrooms on the 35th floor have floor to ceiling windows. Nice.



Later, we all went and watched an AFL game - Aussie Rules Football. It's a strange but exciting blend of soccer, American football, basketball, and I daresay even volleyball. It's played on an oval field and almost anything goes.



Jos, Marcus, and I flew from Melbourne to Christchurch on the 18th of July and caught a bus down to Dunedin several hours after landing. We arrived in Dunedin at midnight and soonafter went to bed.



I'm nearly caught up in posts, so pretty soon the live-action day-after-the-event posts will be back instead of these 2 week delayed posts :-)

To be continued...

Life imitates Art

While out and about on our Great Ocean Road trip, we decided Ron should train his sign imitation skills, in case he is ever called upon to perform emergency temporary signage for the safety of others until a real sign can be installed. What do YOU need to enroll in our elite sign imitation academy? Flexibility, rigidity, balance, resourcefulness, patience, ability to work alone or occasionally as part of a team, and above all a passion for telling others what to do or not do.

Here is a selection of the rigorous training routine we put him through:






















To be continued...