Alan's Rambles: Dunedin: Olveston, Bird safari, Chinese New Year and The Catlins

8 Thu-
Work occasionally have these day outings which I can sign up for. Today at 2:30pm I went to visit 'Olveston Historic Home' in Dunedin, along with others from work. It was interesting only because everything in there was 100% how it was in the 1920's. Nothing was faked or re-imagined to a state it could have been in, because it didn't need it. The house was left to the council from the original owner in the 1960's, who left it 100% as it was from the 1920's. Really interesting if you see it from its authenticity point of view. this goes from the furniture to silverware to wallpaper. Everything just as it was, and surprisingly kept in that time lock. Nothing looked old.

10 Sat-
We went to town to have a wander around. The town centre was having some type of event on with two stages on either end of The Octagon, and tons of stalls around with interesting things to buy. However Sabine was interested in visiting the camera shop, so we did that. After that we got a bite to eat- a burger and chips from the kebab shop. Only the burger filling was more like a kebab filling in a burger bun. Was expecting a proper burger with patties but alas it wasn't that.
After that we visited the peninsular for some bird safari. We drove the car around and went via Portobello to Allans Beach to find some interesting things. Luckily I managed to take a few great shots of Kingfishers! So i'm happy with that! We also saw 3 different species of shags which was awesome. We drove as far as the end where the Albatross centre is. Again we didn't go inside.

12 Mon-
Sabine and I attended a photography workshop in the evening. Shes always been a keen photographer and since we sorta got to know Craig McKenzie, a somewhat famous nature photographer in NZ who lives in Dunedin (who attended the marine photography workshop a few weeks back), we have got to know of a few things we could do as a hobby, this society being one of them. It was a hall in Mary Hill from 7:30pm tonight. However it was more like a lecture from ''famous'' guest speakers from Queenstown who belong to the Canon set of professionals. Hearing a lecture about how great these people think they are, and what their influences is, is not my sorta thing. Twas half falling asleep to be honest.
It was approaching 9pm and we decided to go home mid lecture.

14 Wed-
Valentines day! I got Sabine a card and a bottle of Vimto from the international sweet shop! I got a nice card too :3

16 Fri-
It is Chinese New Year! Tonight we went to the Chinese Gardens where they were doing non-traditional food stalls (even though the nachos tasted as good as they did at Anime Club). Next was the Dragon that arrived, only for them to pack as soon as it reached the crowd of people. The garden was open too, for $1, but it was packed solid and why should we pay extra when we are annual members anyway. Also the fireworks were cancelled due to the fire ban. It was disappointing.

17 Sat-
Today we visited the butterflies again, then headed out to Brighton for a few walks very similar to the previous time we visited in the spring. Today we spotted two Royale Spoonbills at Taieri river mouth. Amazing birds!

18 Sun-
Today we left around 9:30am for the Catlins! We had a sub at Milton's Subway before heading to Purakaunui Falls and Mclean Falls again. The weather was sunny which was ideal. After visiting those two waterfalls, we visited a lake for a short walk. On the way home we visited Sinclair Wetlands near Mosgiel. it wasn't really a good wetlands walk as its footpaths seemed to avoid the actual wetland lakes itself, but it was very green and flat.
We popped into a fish and chips on the way home. Yummy!