A Mountain, a Steep Street, and the Rarest of Them All

Had a great weekend this past weekend in Dunedin. Amy from Wanaka and her friend Emily were here and good times abounded :)

On Saturday I convinced the girls that a hike up Mt. Cargill was in order, since it was sunny and warm and beautiful, and the views from the top are stunning! We met my flatmate Chris at the museum and he drove us out to the trail. The four of us climbed up through thick native bush, and scrambled up the rocks to the top. We were met with a view of the Otago peninsula, the surrounding city of Dunedin (the 6th largest city in the world by area) and a silently flowing sea fog enveloping the coastline far below us. Chris had thought ahead and brought a watermelon and a chocolate bar. Woohoo! After a bit of a hang out at the top, including watching people run and jump off the mountain to hang glide, we headed down through the forest. Saw the "top five" NZ forest birds: wood pigeon, tomtit, fantail, tui and bellbird.


<-- Eating watermelon, Amy me and Chris









<-Amy, me and Emily at the top






On the way back into town, we just had to make a stop at Baldwin St., the steepest street in the world! Not only did we stop, oh no, Chris had to drive up to the top! It's like going up the first part of a roller coaster, you are afraid you are going to flip over backwards! We almost made it, but just before the end all the girls had to get out so the car could get to the top. It was crazy! Everyone cheered us on though, it was really funny.







<--Me and Baldwin St. behind my head




Ok, then on Sunday there was a lot of banana pancake and scrambled egg making in the morning, then we stole our friend Paul's car and headed to the Otago Peninsula, namely Sandfly Bay. After a bit of a scary cliffside drive up over the hills in the middle, we descended on the south coast and parked at the DOC sign. It was a great walk down to the beach, with sweeping views of the bay and Otago coastline and huge dunes stretching back from the beach. We were all pretty happy just to be on the beach on such a nice warm day, and then it got better... wildlife!!



Not only were there sea lions lounging on the beach within feet of where we were walking, but there was a pair of yellow eyed penguins at the other end of the beach! I didn't think we'd see them, but since they are molting they are not feeding in the ocean during the day. We got great photos, and even some video. They are so charming and adorable :) And they are one of the rarest penguins in the world, so lucky us! When we finally left the bay us three girls were very happy. It also didn't hurt that we had a gourmet pizza cook-off at the end of the day complete with red wine :)




<-- Yellow Eyed Penguins! One of them is molting :)








<-- Can anyone spot the penguin in this photo?





That's my update for now, am making plans for Stewart Island for the upcoming week, so stay tuned!

Yellow Eyed Penguin Trust

Quick post, I just spent the day volunteering for the second time at the Yellow Eyed Penguin Trust repotting native species and moving plants around. It's so fun to hear everyone's stories and hear about how many penguins they saw on night counts. And we get morning tea at 10:30, and lunch at noon and leave by 3:00, so it's a pretty good day! Below is a picture of Anita and myself moving around some plants, and one of the nursery :)

Weekend in Wanaka

I have just returned from my weekend in Wanaka, a great lakeside town in the Southern Alps near Mt. Aspiring National Park. The weather was beautiful! I was able to do everything that I had planned. Hooray! So without further ado, the illustrated version of my weekend:

Friday March 16: I woke up at my backpackers and was picked up by a shuttle to Mt. Aspiring National Park, about an hours drive north into a striking glacial river valley. We stopped at the Raspberry Creek car park at the entrance of the Matukituki Valley, and I was reminded of a certain crazy tramp I did the last time I was in NZ :) My hike that day lead me up through a stream valley beech forest for 2 hours to a striking lookout at the Rob Roy Glacier.The clouds stayed just behind the ridge so we got great views. The mountain the glacier is on is almost 8,000 feet high! The walk back afforded many sightings of native birds all eager to eat the insects I was stirring up. I was back in Wanaka by 4:30 and relaxed in town until meeting up with a girl Amy I had met here last time. Went to her apartment for the evening for a big BBQ and a soak in the hot tub. Nice!





<--Rob Roy Glacier





Saturday March 17: When I woke up I could tell in the distance that the park was completely clouded over, but the sun always shines in Wanaka! I decided to take advantage of the clear day and go horseback riding. At 1:00 I was picked up with two other people and we drove 30 mins south through the Cardrona Valley. The riding place had appaloosas that were very striking. While most of them had names like Dakota and Pocohontas... mine was named Prickles! Ten of us set out for a two hour ride up through the open fields of the valley, with beautiful views of the mountains back towards Wanaka. We got to trot and canter quite a bit, which was great, Prickles was very well behaved. If you're having a hard time imagining it, think of the second Lord of the Rings movie... it felt like that :) After the ride I could barely walk, but still met up with Amy and her friend for a Guinness at the local pub before going back to stay at the apartment that night (in the master bedroom that two friends had just moved out of!). Good times so far...

Sunday March 18: Amy had the day off from work, so we went downtown for a flat white (it's like a latte). It was only my 6th flat white of the weekend... Amy's boyfriend John was taking the car up to the national park, so we packed our bags and hitched a ride. We had him drop us off at the Diamond Lake Conservation Area on the way, and since it looked so ominous further up the valley, he stayed and hiked with us! The hike was nice, ambling up a small mountain named Rocky Mountain, and for the most part it was sunny and very windy. The views of the lake from the top were great and Amy and I got a triumphant summit photograph. I also saw a NZ pipit for the first time, so that made me very happy. The three of us spent the rest of the day eating ice cream, watching movies and going to a free barbeque down by the lakeside. And of course finished the day in the hot tub :)




<--Summit of Rocky Mountain







Ok, so that was my weekend! Not too bad I don't think. It's nice to be back in Dunedin for now, but I do miss the mountains already... ~Kate


P.S. Yes, I know the naked people on the cover of this tramping book... it's my friend's boyfriend Josh and his friend Paul! Silly Kiwis :)

Picture album from Rarotonga

Hey everyone, I finally got all of my pictures uploaded to Kodak Gallery and put titles on them. If you want to see the album, click the link below:

Kate's Rarotonga Picture Album

I have taken a few pics around Dunedin, so hopefully I will post those before I go to Wanaka for the weekend!

Yay for penicillin!

I went to the doctors today and got myself a healthy dose of penicillin for the next ten days. Yay! I am already feeling so much better, mostly because my throat was too sore to eat for the last five days and now it's feeling fine! Yessss, fooooood. So, now that I am better, I have to make plans for what to do while I'm here. Plan number one involves going to the beach this weekend and sitting in the sun. St. Kilda here I come...

Pictures are up!

Check out my older posts, they all have pictures with them now! Click on the picture to see it bigger, but don't forget to hit the back button to get back to the blog. Enjoy!

~Kate

P.S. I'm feeling much better, especially after eating chicken, potatoes and pumpkin at Harley's parents farm last night!!

Lesson Learned

Well, I made it to Dunedin in one piece, and with all of my luggage, so I am pretty happy about that. It was a 5.5 hour bus ride down though, which is quite a long time.

But here is a little lesson for you all:

Do not spend one day riding around a hot tropical island on a scooter, and the next day swimming in a glacial river for 4 hours. Because you will get a fever. Which I have.

The good news is that 1) it's not dengue fever, which is awesome, 2) my friend made me soup last night and toast and tea this morning, and 3) I don't have anything to do right now anyway, so it's actually the perfect time to get sick! I am itching to get out in Dunedin though and see some familiar old places (although watching TV here is funny enough...). I'm going to go lie down again and drink my tea, I'll let you know when something more exciting happens!

~Kate