Kiwi-Land continues!

Well, shortly after my last post (the next day, as a matter of fact) Jeff and I went our separate ways once we reached Dunedin. I was fighting a cold, and not feeling my best, and he seemed to want to do what he wanted. So no hard feelings were felt, and we even went out to a pub that night and watched the All Blacks vs. France--in an Irish pub, of course. I'm starting to wonder why it is that Irish pubs are so universally popular and why, no matter where you are in the world, they all seem pretty identical: everything from the names, to the music, to the decor, to the Guinness paraphernalia. And never having been to Ireland, I can't compare them to the "original" but I imagine they're more of an idea, an imitation of what people think an Irish pub should be.

Any-hoo, back on topic: I stayed two nights in Dunedin, though the one full day I had there I spent most of the morning in bed, nursing my rotten cold. I felt bad for my roomies, as I was sniffling and blowing my nose all night. I promised them it wasn't swine flu, though, so they were fairly understanding :) I then went to the centre of Dunedin, the square that is called--wait for it--The Octagon. Because it is, in fact, octagonal (yes, I counted). The art gallery was free, so I went in for an hour or so, and I have to say, it was certainly worth the visit. On the main floor, they had a selection of 18th- and 19th- century European art and an exhibit of France Hodgkins, a 20th-century Kiwi artist. But the second floor had a selection of exhibits ranging from Russian icons to avant-garde Russian art to Iranian photography. It was a really neat selection, and small enough not to be overwhelming. Leaving the art gallery (and having had a cup of coffee--vital) I started walking towards Baldwin St., the "steepest street in the world." My map of the city didn't show it, just an arrow at the edge of the map saying, "This Way." So I started walking, and after nearly an hour I reached the edge of the map, and found another sign saying "Baldwin St., 1750m." As it was already 4 o'clock, I figured by the time I got there it would be nearly dark, so I turned around and went back. But as least I got a walk!

That was Sunday, so Monday I bought my bus pass and headed out to Te Anau, in Fiordland. But before my bus left in the afternoon, I did manage to squeeze in a visit and tour of the Cadbury's chocolate factory in Dunedin. Considering how expensive chocolate is here, and how good the prices were in the factory store, I was exceedingly restrained with my purchases -- and I still have most of it left! Shocking, I know. :)

Te Anau (rhymes with "Keanu") is a lovely little town on south end of Lake Te Anau, and the capital (if it can be termed such) of Fiordland, which includes most of the SW portion of the South Island. I took a cruise from Te Anau to Doubtful Sound, going by tender across Lake Manapouri, then by bus over the Wilmott pass, and down into Deep Cove and out into the Sound. According to the tourist postings, the Sound was named because Cap'n Cook was "doubtful" that if he sailed in he'd ever be able to sail out again. Not very original. The sea was calm enough that we were actually able to make it out the mouth of the sound, and we got to see NZ fur seals basking in the sun, and a couple of Buller's Mollymawks (the albatross's smaller cousin) chasing our boat in the hopes of scraps.

Also in Te Anau I met Janet, a firefighter from the 'Peg, who's travelling around NZ following the All Blacks. We had some great chats, and we both happened to be heading to Queenstown the next day and were staying in the same hostel there, too, so we ended up having wedges, pizza, and beer for dinner -- delish!

Photos!

New Zealand, the South Island

Kiwi-land!

Landed in Christchurch the evening of June 16th, to about 5°C and a cold rain. Hurray summer! :) I ran into a little problem at the Melbourne airport, in that I had only bought a one-way ticket to NZ. And they didn't want me to stay. Or at least, in order to be eligible for a tourist visa, you apparently need proof that you're not going to stay, hiding among the flocks of sheep, or herds of deer, cows, and alpacas.
So luckily I was in plenty of time to check-in, and had to buy my return flight at the counter (as things stand, Auckland-Sydney on July 9, though this may well change). I thought I was going to get stung, but managed to get a cheap fair. I can change it, but I'm going to try to avoid it if possible. I'm too cheap. But July 9 gives me nearly 4 weeks, which, while not plenty, gives me a chance to see a fair bit.

Coincidentally, I met another Canadian, Jeff, at the hostel I was staying at in Christchurch. He had recently bought a camper van, and was looking for someone to share gas costs with, so I've hopped in with him for a week or so. We left Christchurch heading southish, and ended up in Methven (pop. 1300), near Mt. Hutt, one of the ski fields with the longest season in NZ. Jeff spent a day snowboarding and I, I met another friendly traveller, Lindsay (most recently of Truckee, CA), who I spend a day wandering around with. Lindsay has a job in Methven for the season, but had just arrived, so had a couple of days. We took a three hour walking trail around the town, and met one of the locals, Vincent, who was walking his dog, Benson. (His accent was quite strong for a Kiwi, and Lindsay and I were both unsure as to whether the dog's name was also "Vincent". We decided it was "Benson" but we weren't completely sure.) He took great delight in talking about his dog, and gave us a bit of local Methven gossip, which I dare not repeat.
We left Methven this morning, driving south along the coast through Timaru to Oamaru. I'm spending the night in a hostel as I've been cold all day, but Jeff is sleeping in the van tonight. We drove to the shore to see penguins (see earlier post!), as there are two species nesting on the coast: little blue and yellow eyed. They were charging $20 to see the little blue penguins, but it was free to see the yellow eyed ones--as long as you stood at the top of the cliff. Which we did, in the cold onshore breeze, and spotted two penguins in the distance. That's a 100% improvement since my last attempt at penguin spotting!

(Oh, and the hostel I'm staying at has a pet axolotl named "Axel"!)

Melbourne

Well, I've been nearly a week and a half in Melbourne. Taking it easy, wandering around the city -- it's a great city for that kind of thing. I met a few great people in the hostel, including Kim, another Canadian from BC, and Katy, a recently graduated nurse from Portland. The night I checked in, Kim and I went out with a friend of hers, Dan, who had worked a ski season in Canadia, and some of his friends. As the following day was a holiday, no one was in any hurry to go home early, so they showed us around a few Melbourne bars (I don't remember the names, just that one was on a roof). We drank, we danced, we had a darn good time. Kim left the next morning for her new job at a resort (in the Grampians, I think), and Katy moved in. We decided to go to the Melbourne Aquarium (see pics), where they had the usual bizarre Australian sea creatures, and Antarctic penguins! I don't know what it is about penguins, but they seem to be my new favourite animal. Well, new favourite bird, at least. Though I hope to see the Southern Cassowary up in Cairns. But penguins are way cuter than cassowaries.
Katy and I also did a little shopping at the DFO--mid-winter sales at factory outlets, need I say more? For the rest of my time in Melbourne, I spent much of it wandering around, walking up Brunswick St., going to the Victoria Market, St. Kilda's, along the Yarra, and so on. On the Wednesday Dan (Kim's friend, see above)took me along the Great Ocean Road to the Twelve Apostles (currently only about eight are still with us), one of the most photographed spots in Victoria. We also stopped at Bels Beach, where Point Break (starring Keanu!) was filmed. Unfortunately, they didn't have any life size cutouts of Keanu to pose with. I was exceedingly disappointed. As you can imagine.

It doesn't sound like I did all that much in just over a week, but the time certainly went very quickly. On June 16th, I fly to Christchurch.

Tassie Two

The rest of Tassie went pretty quickly, seeing a lone penguin in Bicheno, some tassie devils, wallabies and roos at Nature World, and trying local cheeses at Pyengana. Getting back to Hobart of Friday night, I tried to have an early night, but had my rubber arm twisted by some of the friendly folks at the Pickled Frog, and so after a speedy game of chess--in which I seized defeat from the jaws of victory--we did a tour of some of the local Hobart attractions. I know I came home with a couple of entry stamps on my wrist, but that's about all I could tell you about where we went. There were a couple of Aussies, a couple of Kiwis, three other Canadians (one from the 'Peg and two from Guelph -- seriously!), and a couple of Belgians. Left on Saturday for Devonport, but not before hitting up the Salamanca market and having shark and chips for lunch.

From Devonport I took the Spirit of Tasmania ferry to Melbourne. It's about an eleven hour trip, and fortunately, quite calm. I did meet a very nice eighty-three year old Welshman named Con who has been travelling around by himself and was, I think quite lonely for company. We chatted a bit, and had dinner at the eatery on board. The next morning once we docked, he insisted that I share his cab into town (he was going right where I needed to go) and then met me up for lunch! He was good company, and as I said, I think he was rather lonely.

Am in Melbourne now, indefinitely, or until I figure out what I'm going to do in NZ, when I'm going to go, and how I'm going to get there. It's rather warmer here than it was in Tassie, but a little rainy. Am going to wander today, and possibly buy a new pair of jeans (mine are two steps from death). Then laundry tonight, and a movie? Only time will tell.

Tassie!

I'm halfway through my trip to Tasmania, Van Diemen's Land, home of the world's largest carniverous marsupial. What a claim to fame! Actually, it's quite lovely here, very different from the rest of Australia (at least, from that small part that I've seen so far). It's richly, lushly green here, and the weather is constantly changing from one minute to the next. I haven't seen any snow yet, but there has certainly been frost in the mornings. The daytime temps are hovering around 12-15 C, and about 5 at night. I keep reminding myself that this is winter -- though I'm sad that I'm missing patio season, the only part of the year when it is actually enjoyable to sit outside in Canada. I'm hoping the beaches of the north will make up for it!

I'm on a tour around Tassie at the moment, starting and ending from Hobart. We spent Monday and Tuesday nights in a tiny village called Tullah, and are tonight in Launceston. So far we've been to Mt. Field National Park, Doneghy's Hill, Lake St. Clair and Platypus Bay, Russell Falls, Montezuma Falls, Strahan, the Henty Dunes, and Cradle Mountain, as well as honey tasting in Chudleigh. Tomorrow we head over to the east coast and the Freycinet peninsula and Wineglass Bay, spend the night in Bicheno, then "home" to Hobart on Friday.

There are only three of us on the tour: myself and two German girls, Roumina and Eva (they didn't know each other before). We're having a good time, eating too much in the van!