I don't want to hear any more about the goodness of chocolate for at least a week. One of the things that New Zealand does very well is make good chocolate. This is because of a company called Cadbury's Confectionary Limited. Guess what? Cadbury World, the factory where they make a lot of their chocolate, is right here in Dunedin. And we are right in the middle of Cadbury's Chocolate Carnival. :{ Being the chocolate lover that I am, I was thrilled to go and see the factory - and if you haven't picked up on the fact that Caiti is posting, than you need to wake up and smell the ... chocolate. No, it wasn't that bad. I was actually okay with doing this whole "chocolate carnival" thing. This morning we got to make some chocolates (pouring melted chocolate into moulds and then mixing flavors) and decorate some really chocolaty muffins. I feel a little proud of myself; I was able to make a chocolate flower. (for those of you who don't realize how HUGE this is for me, we're talking about a girl who doesn't even like to touch chocolate chips here) Anyway, after we did that, we did a little shopping, and then went on a tour of Cadbury World. WOW. This was candymaking on a massive scale. I don't think I have ever seen so many boxes of candy at one time. The warehouse alone was ginormous. And we won't even talk about the stench...I mean, aroma. It was quite the experience.
After that, we went out onto the Otago Pennisula to try and see some albatrosses and some other penguins. Shall we say that standing out in the upper 30s with a 20mph wind for a little over an hour is not the funnest of activities? We came to the conclusion that the penguins had all relocated without telling anyone that they were leaving. Oh well - it was funny to be all huddled together trying to stay warm. :) So after that we went out to a fancy restaurant for dinner and came back to get ready for our nice warm beds. Tomorrow we move on to our last stop. Hopefully one of us will be able to post again soon!
Th-th-that's all folks!
the gimp
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
July 15-16
Kia Ora, mates!
July 15 found us leaving Te Anau for the southernmost large city of Invercargill. We said "good-bye" to the Southern Alps, stopped in the "Sausage Capital of New Zealand" (but didn't get any of them), and visited a paua shell place in Riverton before arriving in Invercargill, the southernmost city in New Zealand.
When we arrived, the hostel we were booked to stay in were short on power so we ended up staying in a lovely little place called Southern Comfort - it was a remodeled, beautiful old house that Mum loved. It had tin tiles decorating the really high ceilings in the lounge - what they call the dining room. After settling in, we had dinner with Mum's friends, Peter and Dena Hale. We played with their kids and watched "Racing Stripes".
The next morning, July 16, we had porridge for breakfast and headed out on the Southern Scenice Route to reach the Scottish town of Dunedin. Along the way, we stopped at Curio Bay where a forest of trees was somehow petrified and left on the edge of the beach. We continued on to Purakaunui Falls; it looked like a river flowing down an Aztec Temple. Then, we went to Nugget Point.
Now, Nugget Point might not sound like a cool place but let me tell you it was! At Nugget Point, we saw Southern fur seals - a family of five of them with at least three pups, one of which was playing in a tide pool - and several more were sleeping in the grass and climbing around on the rocks. After seeing the seals and the lighthouse, we drove a little way down the road to Roaring Bay. We are pretty sure this was the beach for Cair Paravel in the first movie. But, even more cool was what we saw when we got to the beach: the rarest penguin in the world, the Yellow-Eyed Penguin. There are only about 3,000 of these penguins in the world and we saw 18 of them! (about 0.6% of the population!) They were the funniest looking birds I've ever seen. I really thank God that He allowed us to see them in the wild. I would post a picture but the computer is misbehaving. As soon as possible, I will but here is a website you can check out in the meantime: http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/podcover.aspx?id=33022.
From there, we wandered on to Dunedin where we settled into our hostel for the next two nights. We had a delicious dinner at a local restaurant and are now posting for you.
Until tomorrow,
The Russet Manuka
July 15 found us leaving Te Anau for the southernmost large city of Invercargill. We said "good-bye" to the Southern Alps, stopped in the "Sausage Capital of New Zealand" (but didn't get any of them), and visited a paua shell place in Riverton before arriving in Invercargill, the southernmost city in New Zealand.
When we arrived, the hostel we were booked to stay in were short on power so we ended up staying in a lovely little place called Southern Comfort - it was a remodeled, beautiful old house that Mum loved. It had tin tiles decorating the really high ceilings in the lounge - what they call the dining room. After settling in, we had dinner with Mum's friends, Peter and Dena Hale. We played with their kids and watched "Racing Stripes".
The next morning, July 16, we had porridge for breakfast and headed out on the Southern Scenice Route to reach the Scottish town of Dunedin. Along the way, we stopped at Curio Bay where a forest of trees was somehow petrified and left on the edge of the beach. We continued on to Purakaunui Falls; it looked like a river flowing down an Aztec Temple. Then, we went to Nugget Point.
Now, Nugget Point might not sound like a cool place but let me tell you it was! At Nugget Point, we saw Southern fur seals - a family of five of them with at least three pups, one of which was playing in a tide pool - and several more were sleeping in the grass and climbing around on the rocks. After seeing the seals and the lighthouse, we drove a little way down the road to Roaring Bay. We are pretty sure this was the beach for Cair Paravel in the first movie. But, even more cool was what we saw when we got to the beach: the rarest penguin in the world, the Yellow-Eyed Penguin. There are only about 3,000 of these penguins in the world and we saw 18 of them! (about 0.6% of the population!) They were the funniest looking birds I've ever seen. I really thank God that He allowed us to see them in the wild. I would post a picture but the computer is misbehaving. As soon as possible, I will but here is a website you can check out in the meantime: http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/podcover.aspx?id=33022.
From there, we wandered on to Dunedin where we settled into our hostel for the next two nights. We had a delicious dinner at a local restaurant and are now posting for you.
Until tomorrow,
The Russet Manuka
Monday, 14 July 2008
July 14
Top of the even' to ya'!
Today was pretty cool. After the usual morning rot, we drove for about three hours through the Southern Alps till we reached Milford Sound. Now, Milford Sound is a beautiful fiord that is a home to highly endangered Southern Fur Seals, Crested Penguins, and Bottlenose Dolphins. We got on our mini cruise ship and took an hour and a half tour of the sound including seeing both the seals and dolphins. The fiord was truly awesome with it's nearly verticle, nearly kilometer high walls and numerous waterfalls because of all the rain. After that, we drove back to the town of Te Auno where we're staying, got an excellant dinner, and came back here to post.
I'll do my best to post tommorrow. Only seven more days till we're back in the states :(
That's it,
The Russet Manuka
Today was pretty cool. After the usual morning rot, we drove for about three hours through the Southern Alps till we reached Milford Sound. Now, Milford Sound is a beautiful fiord that is a home to highly endangered Southern Fur Seals, Crested Penguins, and Bottlenose Dolphins. We got on our mini cruise ship and took an hour and a half tour of the sound including seeing both the seals and dolphins. The fiord was truly awesome with it's nearly verticle, nearly kilometer high walls and numerous waterfalls because of all the rain. After that, we drove back to the town of Te Auno where we're staying, got an excellant dinner, and came back here to post.
I'll do my best to post tommorrow. Only seven more days till we're back in the states :(
That's it,
The Russet Manuka
July 13
Hullo mates!
Yesterday, we got out of bed, ate breakie, loaded up the car and left the little town of Franz Josef. After that we drove all day (literally) through the Southern Alps until we got here in Te Anau late at night. The Southern Alps are one of the things in this world that are truly awesome. We drove through valley after valley, some of which had large lakes, some had farmland (mainly beef cows, sheep and deer) and one had the self-proclaimed "adventure capitol" of New Zealand. So, besides the amazing scenery and listening to a really good sermon by CJ, nothing much happened.
Signing off,
The Russet Manuka
Yesterday, we got out of bed, ate breakie, loaded up the car and left the little town of Franz Josef. After that we drove all day (literally) through the Southern Alps until we got here in Te Anau late at night. The Southern Alps are one of the things in this world that are truly awesome. We drove through valley after valley, some of which had large lakes, some had farmland (mainly beef cows, sheep and deer) and one had the self-proclaimed "adventure capitol" of New Zealand. So, besides the amazing scenery and listening to a really good sermon by CJ, nothing much happened.
Signing off,
The Russet Manuka
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