Sunday 13 March 2011
You know i think we are officially half way through the holiday, I’m game for staying here, but there are walls to build, houses to move, people to visit, drinks to drink etc.
Anyway the hotel was good, it was more studenty accommodation but clean and all en suite and enclosed. I even woke when my alarm went off, so tantine didn’t need to come bang on the door for hours! The only downside was no breakfast but once i was ready around 10 we went looking for a cafe.
We had really no set plans for Dunedin, tantine liked the idea of the peninsula and i wanted to see the port, throughout Keith also text me good places to go so we had a fair bit to see, in the end more to see than we had time for so there is some left for next year. One place which was great was the chinese gardens, i did indeed take many photo of people taking many photo of many different things, we also have many cup of tea. Joking aside it was lovely, such a surreal place, betwixt (big word) the central Dunedin area. We left the beast outside.
Back in the beast and now for a drive along the Otago Penisula, the Penisula is stunning, albeit rather a daunting drive. The poor passenger is hanging over the side of the sea as we whiz round all sorts of tight bends and race round corners, all while both passenger and driver are admiring the views. Crazy some people, obviously we didn’t do that. First stop (luckily not the sea) was this castle, not your typical castle, more your I want a castle and I’m building one. Not on top of a hill, about 20 metres from the top with trees obscuring the view, clearly not built for defensive purposes. It had pretty gardens and offered me my third steak sandwich in a few days, got to keep the red meat goodies in the system.
The Penisula is famed for Albatross, big birds i thought were made up for the purposes of that kids tv program about them but clearly they exist. That said you had to pay about 30 quid for the privilege, sod that I say, got to see a cute seal instead though from a distance. That was it really, a nice drive back to Dunedin along the same dodgy road and then back via the beach for a quick look to Christchurch. Keith suggested some good routes, we mixed and matched as time was not on our side but I enjoyed it and as i said more for next year.
I have only seen 1 camera hiding behind a tree, and i don’t think we’ve done more than 140 when overtaking so hopefully we are OK. Well if there is any trouble I know someone who knows someone who knows someone so!