Dunedin: This weekend

18 Sat-

Sabine and I got up at 3am today because the weather report for Mount Cook has been looking pretty awesome all week.

We left the house at 4am, driving pretty much non-stop all the way up. We did stop for fuel though.

A quick stop over at Kurow

We got to Twizel first of all for a hot drink and a sandwich, then drove up again, arriving at Hooker Track mid morning (around 9am or 10am?). The walk up to Mount Cook started out nice but a bit cloudy, but as the walk progressed the weather got better and better as the sun was burning though. Eventually it was bright and sunny! The views of the mountains were stunning, especially Mount Cook itself! It looked like it had an ice cube on top of it! XD
Also we could hear a few avalanches happening a few times. Even saw a few too. They were not like how you would imagine them to be. They were only in tiny areas where a bit of show would fall off at a time. A bit like like how clumps of melting snow come off a tree, only just on a much grander scale.

It became so clear you could even see Mt Cook from the car park

We drove back and made it home before 5pm. We felt sorry for leaving our cats for 13 hours so we made it up to them by having them roam around the bungalow until 10pm. They loved playing with us.

19 Sun-

Not too much happened today. We played with the kitties for most of the day actually. Sabine had to go to work so I followed. That was only for about 15mins. For the rest of the outing we just went to the mall for a bit.

Back home and playing with the kitties again. In town I bought a laser pointer and its proved to be quite fun with the cats!

I opened a few of my shipping boxes (which arrived at Sabines work on Monday). I was very surprised to see a birthday present inside one of the boxes. It was a Highlanders shirt with a matching green hat. Now I can fit right in! Thanks again Dad. I really wasn't expecting anything like that!

Not too long after that I spotted another hedgehog in the garden. It was basking in the sun. Sabine fed it cat food which it wolfed down. Then as it wandered off we both saw it dragging one of its back legs. poor thingy.

Thunder kitty, Saturday

Dunedin: Calcifer and Hermione

For ages now Sabine has wanted a cat. This goes back to the days of living in the UK even. But its kinda rare to find rented accommodations that allow pets.

Our landlady gave us permission to get a cat, so long as it doesn't destroy the furniture. After that go ahead, Sabine bought many things in preparation of owning a cat. Firstly we got a whole bunch of matching blue loose carpets to completely cover the floor of one of the spare rooms, now considered our car room. The single bed was taken out and put in the shed, leaving 100% floor space for cat things such as a cat tree, a cat cave, a cat bed, assorted balls, litter trays, feeding bowls, and other things like a springy mouse and a discus ball-rail play thing.

We have a litter tray and another huge cat tree in the living room too.


Anyway, last weekend, exactly one week ago from when I'm posting this, Sabine and I picked up two kittens from a lady from the other side of town. Sabine was in contact with her via Facebook. However she proved to be highly unreliable during the few weeks prior to getting the cats because she hardly responded to our questions, and last Sunday when we agreed we would pick them up, she didn't respond to us much and in the end we had to wait until 9pm before we could pick the kittiens up. Officially, kittens need to spend at least 8 weeks with their mothers before they can be sold or given away. Over this past week we have come to realise that our smallest cat, Hermione, is younger then her brother Calcifer. She doesn't use the litter trays very efficiently, and has numerously pooed on the carpet. In fact its pretty much a daily occurrence.

Our cats are half brother and sister, we think. They have separate mothers, that's for sure. Calcifer is a pure ginger boy. He is named after the fire star character from Howls Moving Castle. Hermione is a tortoiseshell cat with white paws and a ginger leg. She is named after a character from the Harry Potter series.

Calcifer was taken to the vets on Tuesday after Sabine got home to find his eyes and nose very crusty. They were already bad on Monday but Sabine insisted he be seen too as quickly as possible. I had just arrived home from work when I saw her driving out our driveway. I hopped in the car and followed. At the vets it was confirmed that he is suffering from conjunctivitis, most probably caused from the move to our house and the stress caused from the ordeal of it all. The vet also said that when their front top two teeth come through, this means they are 14 weeks old. We'll see. We bought some eye ointment, to be put into their eyes three times a day. Both cats will be infected with the same virus causing the conjunctivitis, its just that it showed more prominently with Calcifer.
Over the next few days, Hermione started showing signs of being sick too. She keeps sneezing. Luckily since using the eye ointment, no further symptoms show up on her. Even Calcifer is okay now.

Calcifer is very much a boy. He loves running and climbing. I would say he has grown somewhat this past week. He loves running around chasing after his mouse toy that's on the end of elasticated string that we move around. I've tired him out numerous times using this toy, and other similar toys. I've even made him follow the mouse up and down the cat tree to tire him out.

Hermione is more affectionate and softer in her actions. This is due to her being obviously younger than her brother. She likes climbing onto my lap when I'm sitting in the room. Today I even had both cats in my lap, purring and trying to sleep. It was very adorable!

On wednesday we introduced both kittens to our living room/kitchen space. We had to watch Hermione like a hawk in case she tried to poo or wee on the fitted carpet. To be honest from now on we wont be letting her out of the cat room until she has learnt how to use the litter trays. We had Calcifer in the living room earlier today but he was just meowing and looking for his sister nearly the whole time.

On Thursday, Sabine took both kittens to the vets to have their first shots. The vet was reluctant to give Hermione her shot due to how small she is, but we needed it done regardless due to timings with the cat hotel that we have booked near the Eco-sanctuary, for over the Christmas period. The shots need to be 4 weeks apart and the cat hotel only accepts cats that have had at least two shots. Besides, Hermione has been fine.

Hermione is hard to photograph or video. At least on my phone. Its because she has a lot of black fur. Calcifer is a ginger so its easier.

Calcifer growls when killing his mouse toy. When he catches it, its the cutest thing; he trots off to a corner with the house in his mouth very pleased with himself. Hermione caught the mouse today and started coying her brother by growlling sinisterly too. it was hillarous!

first night having just come home to us

"Where am I?"

Hiding in the cat cave, first night.

more relaxed in their cat cave

peek-a-boo

they found a new spot to huddle in, in their cat tree.

both kitties sleeping on Sabines lap

Cacifer sleeping on his sister who is sleeping on Sabines lap.

Two 'better' photos of Hermione.

Being rascals on my lap.
(Thank you to Google Photos for automatically generating this gif for me based on my photo uploads)

Please check out my videos of these adorable critters. The link is easily accessible on the desktop version of this website (not mobile/tablets). If in doubt, here is the link: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPQFbxh_BoDXEfEB7EpWaIuTYGzlFRzA1qc_4Ip2B9HVDqJiv7-Rr0AoUpiv0mmtg?key=T1ZZb1pRLXZ3Vk14YUVSSGs0Mm13N0ZQT0c4NERR

Dunedin: Life in New Zealand. Part 8

My NZ drivers license finally arrived through the post. Sabine hates her photo but I'm pretty pleased with mine. She refuses to show me! boo to that!

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.

The french cheese melter for the dining table

 

29th Sun-
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.

After that I Skyped my parents.

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.

The view from the porch one morning at home.

We love watching Detective Conan in the evenings. Tonight's episode was a particularly good one.

31st Tues-
Halloween! Not that it feels like it- at all. Too sunny in the evenings to get into the feel of it.

3rd November, Friday-
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.

Lake Tekapo

Lupins! At Lake Tekapo

Lake Pukaki facing towards Mt Cook

Lake Pukaki

Lake Pukaki

mountains on the road to Mt Cook National Park

Blue Pools

Blue Pools

Mt Cook National Park

Mt Cook National Park

Hooker Valley walk track- the weather got bad!

we made it as far as this swing bridge before turning back

inside Lake Tekapo church

5 Sun-
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.

Oamaru botanical gardens

Oamaru botanical gardens

Oamaru botanical gardens

Oamaru botanical gardens

Oamaru botanical gardens

I drove us home to Dunedin and the time was still only midday. We headed to town and looked in the shops, at the funny moving Christmas toys such as a moving Christmas hat, moving Christmas tree etc. Sabine was laughing like crazy. XD

Something else happened this evening that we have been looking forward too for a while... but I'll save that for the next post..............