June 12, 2007
For over a week, we hung out with my old university friend Robin Stewart and her husband Zach Alison in the relaxed surfing town of Mount Maunganui, where Robin is teaching and Zach is building. They were great hosts, and we had long chats about the lifestyle of New Z compared to what seems like the rush and bustle of living in Ontario. It is hard not to enjoy life more fully when you live five minutes from the beach and run by the ocean everyday. Drew also got a two-stage haircut.
June 12, 2007
We leave for Australia on Thursday June 14 to visit with Em Wade in Melbourne, and hopefully, Tam Chafee in Canberra, for two weeks. Since leaving the Mount, we’ve road tripped through the Northland, stopping at every possible beach to find surf for Drew. We had a small world incident when we arrived at the beautiful hostel Endless Summer in the beach town of Ahipara. As we were walking up the steps of the lodge, I see this familiar face but one I haven’t seen in years of an old high school friend Barb. One of the beauties of travelling, you never know who you will meet.
June 12, 2007
After our three-day tour of Dunedin, we were pretty much done with the South Island. We booked it through the central region of the island, whizzing through the Waitpi Valley, Mount Cook National Park and Lake Tekapo, Arthur’s Pass National Park and the Nelson Lakes Region. It rained hard every day so we avoided any intense or long day hikes. We free camped every night. There were hardly any white, rental camper vans on the roads, leaving us with the feeling that we were the only tourists left on the South Island.
We made a pit-stop back at Beaconstone on the West Coast to pick up one of our large suitcases we left behind in storage. Grae and Nancy were in Australia. In the pouring rain, we hopped the fence and retrieved the bag from one of the unused washroom stalls where it was safely hiding for the three weeks we toured around the rest of the South Island.
We took the 5:45 a.m. ferry back to Wellington on May 22 saying goodbye to the South Island. I don’t ever want to have to get up that early again for a boat.
June 12, 2007
Lindsay Service whom travelled in New Zealand after university, said Dunedin was a must-stop, and her favourite NZ city. Drew and I agree. We’ve avoided most cities for any length of time (except Drew’s first week in Auckland) but Dunedin, tucked down in the cold south-east of the South Island is a hip and vibrant city, due mostly in part to the large campus of Otago University, New Zealand’s oldest university. Walking among the university buildings, for a moment made me want to be a student again.
On our second day in the city, Drew and I went in separate directions. He drove Sexy Times to the surfing beaches of St. Kilda’s and St. Clair, while I boarded the historic Taieri Gorge railway car for a picturesque ride through central Otago. It is rated as one of the world’s top railway rides.
[Photos (l-r): the Municipal Buildings in central Dunedin, the Registrar’s Office of Otago University, the ‘world’s steepest street’, Baldwin Street, flora from the Botanical Gardens, the central train station, inside the train station, and photos from the Taieri Gorge railway trip]
