Alan's Rambles: Dunedin: The Red Panda Encounter

We spent half a week in Wellington in May 2019. We took an early flight on Thursday 9th and arrived at our AirBnB in a valley kinda close to the town. A 20mins walk away from the town center at least. We kinda lucked out cause it wasn't that great unfortunately. We caught a bus to town and visited TaiyaKiwi again to eat a Taiyaki each. The guy cooking at this cafe told us about a good Japanese restaurant in the town center to visit for lunch, so we visited that.

Once home we drank a bottle of white wine which was gifted to us by the owners. The house was manky, with a few dead cockroaches around, and an exposed open window frame in the bedroom to let in the air and everything else. So it had enough issues to justify alcohol. This was our first bit of alcohol in a year.

On the 10th we walked to town and had breakfast out. I had muesli and toast / jam. We visited Starbucks for Sabine then caught a bus to the zoo. Today marked the reason we were in Wellington, to finally pet the Red Panda. We caught the bus to the zoo, and enjoyed seeing the Kiwi again and the Penguins. Our encounter with the Red Panda was at 11:30am and we went into the pen with two other people, and had the big boy running on our laps, eating pears and grapes from our hands. It was very immaculate, no ticks or living things in its fur at all. It was coarse but very furry at the touch.
We revisited the Kiwi pen again afterwards where one screeched for some apparent reason. I got this on video. Back in town we pottered around and ate another Japanese meal from the same place we went to around Christmas time.
Tonight we watched anime with Asian bread buns we bought in town that had some interesting fillings in them such as macha, milk, chocolate and red bean. all different shapes, sizes and ideas. Interesting.

11 Sat-
Today we had breakfast at the chain Joe's Garage, which until yesterday we didn't know was a chain at all. Anyway we had our usual food there which was slightly different from Dunedin but otherwise the same. After that we headed to Starbucks. After that I parted ways as Sabine went to take an IELTS test at Massey Uni for the afternoon. I caught a bus to Miramar Weta Workshop studios for a 'tour' around their tourist made museum. It was OK I guess. I'm pleased I went, but I went in thinking it would be a studio tour akin to the Harry Potter world in London. But it wasn't. After that I headed to the overcrowded Te Papa and waited in a quiet spot upstairs until 4pm for when Sabine was finished. I just used their free internet, and I wasn't the only one sitting there for a few hours.
Once Sabine was done we headed to the same Japanese restaurant we visited for lunch two days ago, but the evening menu was totally different to the lunchtime menu, and more expensive, so we just walked out. Came home and watched an anime film called Hal, eating our Japanese bread buns.

12 Sun-
We caught a very early shuttle bus to the airport, having breakfast at Wellington Airport. We were back in Dunedin before lunchtime. We unpacked, shopped at Pac N Save and even went to the EcoSanctuary for a late lunch before collecting the cats at 3pm.
We noticed that our house had a for sale sign on it. Kirsty from Nidd was even doing an open home event on the house whilst we were away.
Gerald, our neighbor, came over to talk to us about our decision and action to put the house on the market for real.

On the 14th, Sabine found out she was pregnant again. We were already hesitant to put the house on the market when we signed. If we knew Sabine was pregnant, would this have persuaded us to stay?