Year of the Kiwi

 

A very brief summery of what’s been up since the Milford Track.

 

That’s Bastien, a French dude who started the Milford track with us, but he continued on to the second hut on the first day (and skipped the 3rd hut as well, finishing the track in 2 days… crazy dude). We were both considering going to Dunedin for the Super 14 rugby game and made tentative plans to travel together after the track. After playing some e-mail tag, I found him in his car outside town, and we set off on our road trip the next day.

 

 

Beautiful land from every point of view.

 

 

 

 

We attempted driving the dirt road all the way to the Manapouri power station and further on to the Doubtful sound…

 

 

… but trying to cross the snow covered hill proved too difficult and we turned back. Jeez, just 1 1/2 year of not driving in snow and a couple inches feels treacherous. I’m in for a shock when I come home.

 

 

 

 

Nothing between you and the miles ahead of you.

 

 

Except an occasional Southland traffic jam.

 

 

This is the route that takes you from Te Anau along the entire southern coast of the country to Dunedin, totally worth the extra mileage.

 

 

The first stoplights I’ve seen since leaving Nelson! Invercargill is notorious for sucking. I couldn’t imagine how bad it could be until someone described it as a bigger version Greymouth. Okay, that’s bad… but I still had to see for myself. Once there, I tried to find something positive about the city…

 

 

… and found a Pak’n Save, so it ain’t all that bad!

 

 

 

 

Waking up in Bluff the next morning, I ran down a walking track to catch the sunrise, only to find myself running all the way downhill and ending up at the street. Oh well, it wasn’t a very impressive sunrise anyway.

 

 

When I finally made it all the way back up the hill, I found Bastien drinking tea with a girl who was also sleeping in her car that night. Her name was Selina, and she wanted to go to the Rugby game in Dunedin as well. The more the merrier! She joined our convoy and we continued east.

 

 

Bluff is famous for its Bluff Oysters, so I thought it was going to be a nice scenic town, but it’s quite depressing.

 

 

Newborn tuataras at the Southland Museum; these creatures, native to NZ, are actually not lizards but are descended from the same line as dinosaurs.

 

 

Welcome to Invercargill, Mcdonalds, poultry show… YEAH!

 

 

Walking to Slope Point, the southernmost point of the South Island. There are more southern points in NZ, but that would require an expensive ferry ride to Stewart Island.

 

 

As far south as I’ll probably ever be.

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

Being homeless is fun!

 

 

The sign said petrified forest, but all I saw were rocks.

 

 

I know, I know… don’t cringe at my last statement. It was a joke. The ring formations in the “rocks” were pretty cool.

 

 

At Nugget Point, we saw Yellow-eyed Penguins emerging from the water and waddling into a group. I’ve never seen penguins in their natural habitat before, so it was quite exciting… a whole group of us standing at the lookout shelter, ohhing and ahhing.

 

 

As if the Penguins had some previous engagement to attend to, they all started waddling off into the hills. Intriguing.

 

 

The lighthouse at Nugget Point

 

 

Walking to the lighthouse at Nugget Point.

 

 

You’ve been warned.

 

 

Ohhh… shield yourself from the horror!

 

 

Out in nature, it’s easy to find a place to park and sleep.

 

 

Where am I? Europe? The name Dunedin comes from Dùn Èideann, the Gaelic name for Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. The Scottish influences don’t stop there.

 

 

There are bagpipe parades everyday.

 

 

Actually, this was a graduation ceremony for University of Otago, NZ’s oldest and most prestigious university. The student population keeps things here lively and cheap.

 

 

A Chinese restaurant.

 

 

A church. There are many churches here. Real churches.

 

 

They don’t have Cherry Coke here. It’s Coca-Cola Cherry, and it’s expensive.

 

 

I’m excited being able to take pictures of pretty buildings again. The beautiful structure in the distance is the train station.

 

 

Selina likes pretty buildings too.

 

 

This Taieri Gorge Railway takes passengers through “gorge”ous Central Otago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maori, Gaelic, and Christian symbols… This cross has an identity crisis.

 

 

So… the whole reason we came to Dunedin, to catch the Super 14 rugby game between the Auckland Blues and Otago Highlanders. Though I lived in Auckland for 3 months, I never supported the Blues. It would be like supporting the Yankees… and you know how I feel about the Yankees. Actually, Rich turned me into a Highlanders fan back when I was in Wellington… even though they have one of the worst records in Super 14 rugby. Oh well, maybe there’ll be magic tonight.

 

 

Drinks before the game.

 

 

Drinks during the game at Carisbrook Stadium, aka The House of Pain.

 

 

Atlas (a pretty good Kiwi band) playing a free pre-game concert. The tickets for the game only cost $21. Now that’s a night of bargain entertainment.

 

 

The dude dropped his other sword while running out. A sign of things to come for the home team.

 

 

Crouch, Touch, Pause, Engage!

 

 

With the cheapest tickets and the student crowd shenanigans, the terrace is the best section to watch (or not watch) the game.

 

 

How far I’ve come since seeing my first rugby game in Auckland. This time I was the one explaining what was going on in the game.

 

 

Look who it is! While at the game, I got a surprise call from Chris asking if I was still in Dunedin and if I was at the game. Yes, and yes.

 

 

And as always, trying to get people around him inebriated. Good times. Bastien, you suck at doing shotguns by the way. It’s not like sipping some some fine French wine. Haha.

 

 

After 80 minutes of entertainment and a few brilliant moments… the inevitable, another Highlanders loss. Trounced.

 

 

A Speight’s can wasteland.

 

 

Ohh fun!

 

 

Too much stuff happened that night to even begin elaborating.

 

 

A crowd gathered for the Otago Rally (looks like the same crowd from the night before). It’s not a big event, no WRC cars, but it was still worth enduring the cold to watch dirt spew everywhere. And you know the real reason anyone goes to these events, to see some destruction. Unfortunately, there was none that day.

 

 

Griiiiiind

 

After the first dozen cars, the rest were pretty shit - “And coming up the hill, Joe Schmo from Invercargill” - vrooom, putter, putter.

 

 

And I thought Wellington was hilly. Dunedin is home of the steepest street in the world, so I’ll check that out sometime.

 

 

I’m trying every avenue in my quest to find work, even government resources.

 

 

A stop light

 

 

A rainy night

 

 

Selina had disappeared the day after the game and we had no way of contacting her. A couple days later, just as I was walking around a street corner, the sound of a honking horn filled the air and there was Selina in her car waving at me. After all the other crazy reunions I’ve had in NZ, I wasn’t even mildly surprised. Selina’s car battery is a piece of junk and needs to be jump started everyday. How dangerous (and an ingenious way to meet strangers)!

 

 

With Bastien and Selina gone, I booked a hostel for a week. It’s about time there’s a bed waiting for me at night. It turns out I really like this city so it’s time to settle down a bit, make some money and start the final act of my adventures here.

 

 

 

So here I am at a hostel in Dunedin, enjoying the free internet, a warm bed, hot food… waiting for any good news on the job front. Dave, my mate from Rakaunui adventures, is flying back home today. We had a long chat on some miracle phone credits that refused to go away. The call reminded me that my time here, too, will end. At this moment, I’m watching cricket on Sky Sports… the Blackcaps are in England to avenge their test series loss in NZ. They had quite an atrocious start but Mccullum gave them a fighting chance with heartbreaking 97 and out… ohh so close to a century. They’re huge underdogs, but I’ll still be following this one closely. There’s a stress pimple on my chin, but I’m sure it will go away, and my fingertips are peeling.