roundup

Just a quick roundup as it is late and I still have to pack - and the shuttle comes, no joke, at 4:00 tomorrow morning.

On Sunday, we left Te Anau (which was pouring rain) and headed to Dunedin (which was pouring rain, and cold). I drove the whole way, and did fine - except for a couple of instances where Susan had to remind me I was too far left, it was not a problem. A bit more stressful than driving otherwise, but not a near-death experience.

Dunedin is different from any other place we visited in New Zealand - it is the second largest city on the south island, but it is just not tourist-driven, so it is a city where people live, work and go to school, not book you on a fabulous wildlife cruise.

It was also a Sunday, so everything was pretty well closed. We did manage to squeeze in to a brewery tour at Speight's brewery, followed by a fantastic dinner at the ale house - I had my last dinner of New Zealand lamb, though you really wouldn't know one was missing from all we passed along the way... We also it up a movie, and had a pretty good evening for a closed, rainy Sunday night town.

Monday, we did the other Dunedin attraction, the tour of the Cadbury plant. Chocolate smell and free candy bars? Yes, please. The tour was actually wonderful, and wound through the factory during production and wrapping, which was nifty.

After a trip 'round the town center (called The Octagon, though dissapointingly, two of us entered AND left), we were essentialy done with town - it may have been weather blues, but part of it was also that, by this point, we had also gotten a bit attaached to the idea of getting an extra day in Christchurch, so we wanted to take advantage of that.

So it was up the coast we went, taking Highway 1 up the Pacific Coast. weird, no? We stopped along the way for the most incredible thing. Along a very small stretch of beach, stuck in the sand are these incredible, perfect spheres of rock. The ocean wears away the concrete and limestone that makes them up at different rates, so they are also coming apart in interesting ways, but these boulders, about 6 feet in diameter, are just marvels of nature and mystery. Totally worth the stop. 

Back in Christchurch, the city feels a but more crowded than last week, and some of the overcast drabness and occasional spitting rain followed us north, but it was also a little bit like coming home.

Today, we had a full day of shopping, eating and just catching up, without any rush. We found the firefighter's memorial, made out of salvaged scrap from the World Trade Center, which we missed the first time around and which was really wonderful, actually. For dinner, we skipped the mains and went for the expensive, to die for, fantastic desserts at this place. Seriously, if you ever are in that half of the world, go to this place. Their online menu has the desserts in TWO PARTS, for goodness sake. An excellent way to cap off a really excellent trip to New Zealand.

And tomorrow, Melbourne.