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!

Purakaunui Falls

on Mclean Falls river walk

Mclean Falls

Sinclair Wetlands

Dunedin airport is nearby Sinclair Wetlands

Dunedin: The weekend of the 3rd/4th Feburary

On the Saturday we went to the botanical gardens in the morning to see the Corpse Plant which wasn't quite blooming yet.
It was in the local news for finally being ready to bloom. Its a rare flower which I think is also the biggest flower in the world that flowers directly from its football sized bulb. Its also famous for being smelly. It doesn't flower every year, I think they said it flowers every 9 years or something. Anyway, it was on the news that it started flowering that afternoon. On the 4th we went back very early in the morning before the real crowd arrived, and we got to see and smell it without having to queue up for ages. On the news the queue got to over an hour long wait.

This weekend we did the same things twice, as on the 3rd in the afternoon we drove to Doctors Point Beach to find a cave that Sabine found online. The tide was coming in so we soon abandoned that. There was a strange photo shoot happening too at this cave. No idea what that was about but a lady was guarding a clothes line rack with all sorts of fancy things on it, including different shoes. After that we visited Orokonui Lagoon for a quick walk, but there wasn't much happening. just some Shell Ducks.

We re-did the whole thing again on the 4th at low tide (early afternoon), and was able to walk much further than the cave this time. As for the lagoon walk, there wasn't even ducks there this time. But we did have fun looking at the sand crabs. If you wait long enough, these little critters come out of their hiding places in the sand.

Forgot to mention, but on the Sunday morning after viewing the plant in bloom, we went to the ecosanctuary for a few hours where we ate a really tasty vegetable toasted sandwich at the cafe, and then finally we went to Doctors Point again.

Doctors Point beach, Saturday

Orokonui Lagoon

The Corpse Plant on Sunday

lunch at the ecosanctuary cafe

 

Back to Doctors Point beach again

Dunedin: Butterflies!

Waitangi Day is a national public holiday here in NZ, which was February 6th, a Tuesday. Sabine and I visited the museum and bought yearly passes each to visit the butterflies! We had been here before on re-opening weekend in December and today the weather was a bit off, so it made sense to go here on this day.

We have since been back twice more, on the 11th and on the 17th.

The place is marketed as a tropical forest, as it has a pond, waterfall, 3 levels to walk around, as well as pretty birds such as finches and Chinese Quails which are cute.

The following photos are from these 3 visits.

Dunedin: The cats getting done and the weather being weird

On the 31st January our kitties were taken to the vets again to be neutered and spayed. They were not allowed to eat a meal the night before, however they were able to be taken home the same day. After that they acted normal. Hermione had a lump on her belly as a reaction to the stitches, but its become flat again since then. Both never sulked and are just the same as they always were.

The 31st just so happened to be the hottest day of the year. It reached 31ºC today at work.

We have been buying decent ice cream tubs recently. Passionfruit and mango is one of them, chocolate orange with chocolate chips is another, and finally we have had Goodie Gum Drops, which is a turquoise bubblegum tasting ice cream with real soft gummy sweets in it. That and the Boysenberry flavour make for really interesting choices to buy.

1st Feb, Thursday-
Even though it was the hottest day yesterday, today it rained like crazy, all day. Relentless sheet rain. It even started getting into the house from a screw the connects the chimney pipe to the ceiling. I used a bucket to collect the water before leaving for work. luckily the bucket didn't collect too much! Also, it dropped 10 degrees. The contrast made it seem really cold!
I text the landlady about the water getting in, and on the 8th Both her and her husband came along to fix the sealant on the chimney. That was a dry day again so the new stuff could dry properly. Hopefully the rain doesn't get through now!