Stefan sent us a nice box of sweets from Germany! That was a nice surprise! How kind of him! He's been traveling some more it seems so he's doing well. We got chocolate liqueurs, German style, meaning they don't have liquid inside. Its more like a very light cake mix laced with alcohol.
28th Sat-
We cleaned the house. Afterwards we went to town. We ate lunch at the mall where I had a yummy Chinese food dish and Sabine a kebab. At home the toilet flush broke, so we called out the landlords and they arrived to fix it. That was at around 3pm. They cant really replace stuff and we found out that they cant even fix the oven that's been defective all this time (not that we even use it much).
We went to a party in the evening with Sabine's colleagues. It was a house in South Dunedin that belongs to one of Sabine's french colleagues. She was in France recently and brought back some real cheese. At first we had the party outside in her garden, and then moved inside to the dining table to enjoy eating the expensive cheese with potatoes and bread. They had this very unusual French cheese oven thing for the table, that heats up and melts your cheese slices. The conversation was very much in the vain of the drinking culture which they liked to talk about. Not our thing. We left after about 2 and a half hours.
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| The french cheese melter for the dining table |
This morning there was a snail on the grass outside the kitchen window. I wasn't sure at first what it was, so went outside to investigate. I noticed a hedgehog to one side, playing dead. Maybe it too noticed the snail and would have got it, but didn't because I disturbed it. Sabine and I took lots of photos whilst we could. It kept flinching at the sound of Sabine's shutter on her camera. poor thingy. Well it scuttled off eventually when we went back inside, but not before I had to stop Thunder from running over to investigate it. I told Thunder off so loudly he ran off under the bush.
Then we cleaned and used the toasted sandwich maker. It was disgusting beforehand.
We went up near the Eco-sanctuary and saw a Rosella parrot. Just the one, only for a split second. But still. Its a beautiful bird.
On the way back we drove around Port Chalmers but there isn't much there.
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| The view from the porch one morning at home. |
31st Tues-
Halloween! Not that it feels like it- at all. Too sunny in the evenings to get into the feel of it.
I've been watching a bit of the new series of Red Dwarf before work. Its not too bad. At lunch I sat near a girl reading a Red Dwarf book. I got chatting to her about the show and that lead on to talking about Star Trek and Sci-Fi in general. That was nice.
After work, Sabine picked me up outside my workplace and we drove directly to Lake Tekapo, only stopping once at New World, Oamaru.
We arrived around 9pm. The AirBnB studio apartment is ultra modern and really great!
Not much else to say other than looking forward to tomorrow!
4th Sat-
We work up early which helped because the weather was beautiful. We stopped at the lake side of Lake Tekapo first thing, then drove to Mount Cook around Lake Pukaki.
Firstly we visited the information center where Sabine picked up a walking tour map of the area. We visited Lake Tasmans 'blue pools' which were mostly green, then went to the lake itself where we saw a bit of the glacier in the background. After that we went to the Hooker Valley walk track and started it, but the weather turned and was getting worse. We made it as far as the first swing bridge before deciding to turn back. Next we visited Twizel but didn't stay long.
We drove back and watched Finding Neverland which was a really nice film.
In the evening we watched August Rush. Again a nice film, but a bit far fetched.
The stupid dog from next door was scratching on our sliding door from outside and whining and even barking a few times, even though we had the curtain closed. Eventually the owners brought it inside. They 'lost a star' with me and Sabine, and we will review them accordingly.
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| Lake Tekapo |
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| Lupins! At Lake Tekapo |
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| Lake Pukaki facing towards Mt Cook |
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| Lake Pukaki |
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| Lake Pukaki |
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| mountains on the road to Mt Cook National Park |
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| Blue Pools |
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| Blue Pools |
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| Mt Cook National Park |
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| Mt Cook National Park |
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| Hooker Valley walk track- the weather got bad! |
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| we made it as far as this swing bridge before turning back |
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| inside Lake Tekapo church |
This morning at 6am we were awoken by Sabines alarm. Then almost straight away a weird a siren sounded in the town. Must have been a fire station siren or something. Anyway this caused the stupid dog from next door to start howling.
We left early because the weather was looking a bit rubbish again. There wasn't much to do so we headed home.
On the road in the winding hills coming back there was a hedgehog in the middle of the road in the other lane. Both Sabine and I thought it was still alive, and I could see its snout. We stopped to investigate and sure enough it WAS still alive. I moved it into the field across the road and it tried making itself into a ball. silly thing.
On SH1 there was yet another stupid driver racing along the road and stupidly trying to overtake us. About 20mins later we saw it caught by the police with their lights flashing. We couldn't stop laughing! Serves them right!
The east coast was clear and sunny. We stopped at Oamaru botanical gardens and had a look around. There was a Japanese water garden, an indoor tropical plant house, and even a bird aviary. Very nice.
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| Oamaru botanical gardens |
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| Oamaru botanical gardens |
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| Oamaru botanical gardens |
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| Oamaru botanical gardens |
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| Oamaru botanical gardens |
Something else happened this evening that we have been looking forward too for a while... but I'll save that for the next post..............
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