Kia Ora,
Sadly, Greg moved on to the North Island early this morning,but we will meeting up with him in Sydney in just over a month.
After heavy night time showers, the sun shone all day. We headed down to the i site, the local information center in every town. village, city in NZ. Dunedin’s tourist information bureau was a solid stop, as we had to renovate our plan. Christchurch is still pretty much shut down to tourists as it struggles to create housing for its many many homeless residents. Thus, we are opting to rent a car once there and then to spend our nights in Akarora on a peninsula just off Christchurch. We have booked three nights in an apartment at their Top Ten camp site. Many Christchurch residents are temporarily living there.
We will circle into Christchurch before exiting, and though it will be sad, we feel a need to do this.
So, we lunched in Dunedin at the Nova, a cafe that received high marks in 2010 as ‘the best cafe in Dunedin’ and tried unsuccessfully to book Mimi for an albatross tour, and generally hung out until our first cultural event of the day: a tour of Speight’s brewery. Learned a lot, did we, as the tour guide tweaked all non NZ brewing nations..., but he was pretty entertaining. Then, cultural event #2, the rugby game between the Crusaders (in red) and the local Highlanders (in blue). The latter left it at home so this one-sided game, while confusing (sort of like American football without timeouts, and backs and wideouts), was interesting to us. However, we needed Greg or one of our Kiwi friends to interpret/commentate (e.g. why would anyone encourage the “wave” when so many fans hold open beers, which then fill the air??). We wandered home in the absence of a cab, having probably walked a total of 10K or more today, and played gin rummy on the floor till bed time...
New terms learned recently: takeaway = take outs; wanker = wanker (Ann, I love this one as folks understand me); trundlers = golf pull carts; biscuit = cookie; longdrops = outhouses (so picturesque, don’t you think??!!).
And a snag is either a sausage or s.n.a.g = Sensitive New Age Guy.
And mimi pronounced maymay but spelled mimi means to go to the toilet in Maori.
No comment on those last two.
Up this Sunday morning for the walk to what is supposedly the world's steepest street. Can't miss that!
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| Loved this tape art... great idea It was going on around the Octagon |
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| Lunch at Nova, voted best cafe in Dunedin in 2010. We did not see sign until after we had sat down. |
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| And no wonder! Delish! |
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| Scottish fair going on... people dressed in 1870's garb. Monday is Otago Day. Big regional holiday here. As mentioned before, Dunedin hails of Scottish heritage. |
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| Love the many little alleys |
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| More architecture |
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| Book store featured as top ten in world in terms of quaint used book stores. |
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| Owner w/article naming his shop as top ten in world. He said he did not know for 6 mos. and could not understand the sudden rise in business. Person who visited his shop and deemed it top ten worthy said it reminded her of a bookstore out of the 1950's in England. |
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| Just like home |
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| Very cool shopping |
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| Geting geared up for big rugby test (match) tonight) |
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| Yup... still getting geared up! Univ. students seem to choose a costume and go as groups in those costumes. |
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Sreight's Brewery tour
And btw, this beer is not anything like Bud's, as I may have said in a previous blog. It is more like Oberon and family |
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Same desk used today as it was in late 1800's. Made in USA
Worth about 10K |
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| View from walkway |
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| This guy was quite the character. Between insults to women and to any beer but Belgian and that of Dunedin, he was quite entertaining! Served us beer at tour's end. Said ONLY way to truly appreciate beer is to drink it in a glass. |
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| Our guide ran an ad for Streight's and said that as long as it ran, we could serve ourselves with beer. It stopped. He ran it again. And again. And again. |
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| This poor woman had no idea how to pour beer into a glass. I think our guide would have gladly tossed her out! |
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Ice-cream made from malted beer. Yup.
Tasted very coffee-like. Quite good. |
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| More architecture |
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| Southern Cemetery, Very old cemetery on way to stadium |
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| The Bishops.... |
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| The nuns...hmmmmmm |
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| Denny patiently waiting during yet another mimi detour |
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| House of Pain (the stadium) |
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| My ticket and my Spreight's,,, yeah, baby! |
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| Pre-game band The Feelers, popular NZ band pop rock very nice |
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| The Highlander team's bagpipers |
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| Ummmmm.... (blue colors are Highlanders, home team) |
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They did a lot of this...
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... and a lot of this...
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| ...and some of this.... |
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| We left at 6-30..sigh... Crusaders crushed the home team Highlanders |
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| Cupid Shop...hmmmm.... |
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| Along the Octagon in early evening |
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| Fabulous rainbow |
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| Possibly world's smallest bar, the Mou owned and run by a Frenchman |
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| Scrawlings on the walls of the Mou |
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