Some things old and some things new

Time ticks fast in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Trees have turned into crimson conflagrations and leaves are flying through the crisp, sometimes even cold air, falling to the ground and becoming every gardener's tedious chore. Autumn is here; progressing and slowly turning into winter.

The departure of the last of our Finnish visitors, Juuso and Eeva, two weeks ago in Queenstown, also marked the end of our 2½ month vacation since leaving Tauranga. We had to start searching for jobs for our last months in New Zealand.

As I'm publishing this, I sit at the desk in my new room in Christchurch. I'm sharing a flat with four other people the next 11 weeks, until early July. A week ago I started working for GP again here in Christchurch. Meanwhile, Giigan has our car and is still in the Queenstown area. He's looking for some steady work there, but has already done some sporadic work on a vineyard in Wanaka.

My room in Christchurch as captured by my lousy phone camera.

I'll tell you about the flat and post some proper pictures of it later, as Giigan currently has the camera. Before I go into telling you about how our road trip through the South Island continued from Christchurch two months ago, I'm just going to point out the new "current status" section below the map in the right column. As suggested by Juuso, we'll use that area to just very briefly comment on what's going on presently and what our plans are (since the events in the blog are lagging behind...).

Alright. Moving on to the old bits.

After Sanna and Kaisa departed Christchurch, Giigan and I headed towards Dunedin. Dunedin is the second largest city on the South Island and lies 5 hours south of Christchurch along the coast. The drive is pretty boring, especially the first 1½ hours. This is because the road goes through the Canterbury Plains, which is the largest area of flat land in NZ. The only thing you see is straight road, farmland and up to a kilometre long irrigation systems.

Things get interesting when you arrive in Oamaru, 120 km north of Dunedin. In the 19th century Oamaru was a thriving city, the wealth of which can still be seen. Namely, the old town centre is still full of old limestone buildings. Walking through the historic district you can admire the Victorian architecture while stopping at, among others, a second-hand bookshop, a stone carver's shop or the New Zealand Malt Whisky Company.

The buildings weren't the only old things in the historic district in Oamaru. The dog is alive of course, even though he looks stuffed!

As you may remember from the blog post about the whisky festival in Christchurch, the only NZ whisky in the world is available through this bottling company, which is based in Oamaru. Even though you wouldn't be interested in buying whisky, their store is worth a visit. The ground floor holds a café and a shop, where you can buy all sorts of nice trinkets made in New Zealand (besides the whiskies). On the first floor you can have a look at the festive Barrel Room (wouldn't mind attending a party there), and on the top floor there is an art gallery. The whole interior is very elegant.

The Barrel Room at the New Zealand Malt Whisky Company.

Oamaru is also known for being the childhood hometown of the famous Kiwi author Janet Frame. Furthermore, Oamaru is a great location to spot some penguins! There is both a Blue Penguin colony and a Yellow-eyed Penguin colony within just a few kilometres of the town centre. We have visited the Blue Penguin colony, but not when we were passing through Oamaru this time, so I'll leave telling you about it to another post.

Between Oamaru and Dunedin we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders, which are huge mud and stone spheres that lie on the beach half sunken into the sand. We were favoured by a low tide, so we got to see the boulders very well. They are naturally formed and quite peculiar, but I won't try to explain their origin to you. You can click the link to read up on it if interested.

Giigan by one of the Moeraki Boulders.

Once we got to Dunedin, we ended up staying there for about four days, since we liked the city so much. This wasn't only because the hostel we stayed in (Hogwartz) is one of the best hostels we've been to, but because the whole city has such a vibrant feel to it. Maybe this is a result of Dunedin being a university city and there are lots of students there, maybe it's the architecture which sets the city apart from all other cities in NZ. With its many gothic churches and dominant stone buildings, Dunedin feels like a city in Scotland. In fact, Dunedin was the destination of many Scottish immigrants, and the name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh.

Besides just walking around the beautiful city centre and the university campus, we (naturally) had to visit the Speight's Brewery, established in 1876. We went on a brewery tour and learnt, for instance, that the brewery is one of only a few gravity-driven breweries in the world. Moreover, we learnt that the water comes from a spring deep below the brewery (even though the brewery is located in the city centre), and water from the spring is available free of charge for the public through a tap outside the brewery. The water's claim to extraordinary purity has made it hugely popular; there was always some people on the street by the tap filling up huge plastic water bottles!

After the tour we got to quench our thirst by tasting the full range of Speight's beers.

Dunedin lies at the head of the Otago Harbour, a long and narrow bay formed between the mainland and an equally long and narrow peninsula called the Otago Peninsula. Driving to the tip of the peninsula makes a good day trip from Dunedin, but you need a car of your own as there is no public transport there. At the tip of the peninsula there is an Albatross Centre, where you can visit a museum-of-sorts about albatrosses, pay $45 to go on a tour to the Royal Albatross colony (100 metres away), or just stand outside the centre and wait for one of the giant birds to soar by and watch it for free.

Larnach Castle, which is New Zealand's only "castle" also lies on the Otago Peninsula in a breathtaking location. Budget travellers like us can choose to only visit the garden surrounding the castle. This is a good option if you're not so keen on paying the high entrance fee inside the castle, even though it's not completely free either. But if it's a sunny day, you can borrow a petanque set (free) from inside the castle and play in the petanque court after having walked through the colourful garden with its many native plants and flowers. The Larnach Gardens are, for instance, the only place where we have seen a young Kauri tree. In its youth, the Kauri bears little resemblance to its older self (we saw thousand year old Kauri trees on the North Island).

View from the gardens at Larnach Castle.

You can watch yellow-eyed penguins at Sandfly Bay on the peninsula too, but the walk to the beach is rather long. They are best viewed either at dawn or from 3 pm 'til dusk. We didn't venture down to the trenches and hides on the beach as we were hungry and wanted to go back to our hostel and cook some food!

On our last full day in Dunedin we played a round of golf for the very first time in New Zealand! The course was Chisholm Links; like the name says, a true links course by the windy ocean. The course was very much to my liking, and Giigan wasn't complaining about the view and layout either while playing his very first 18 hole round of golf!

Chisholm Links, Dunedin.

In the evening we drove to Baldwin Street, which is the world's steepest street according to the Guinness Book of Records (some controversy exists around this, of course). It has a maximum gradient of 19° (quite steep, I assure you). The street is a few kilometres from the city centre. We also drove to the top of Signal Hill, from where you have a fabulous view of Dunedin, spreading out on the steep slopes of the hills leaning down into the Otago Harbour.

You'll hear a bit more of Oamaru and Dunedin when we write about Giigan's parents' visit to NZ, so for now this will have to do. In the next blog post I'm going to tell you about the southernmost part of the South Island; a road called the Southern Scenic Route to be specific. Meanwhile, you can sign this online petition to put a stop to genetically engineered (GE) rice being allowed in the European Union! And people in Finland/Helsinki: the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior 2 is visiting Helsinki next Sunday (26th April). Doesn't happen too often so take this opportunity! Everyone is welcome onboard!

MORE PICTURES from Oamaru and Dunedin are available here!