Dunedin to Invercargill

Central Otago Rail Trail
This old rail trail has been converted into a nice bike trail. We did the first two days of the three day tour.
When we realized we wanted to stop biking the Rail Trail after a day of brutal winds, we decided to get back to our car and come back to pick up our bikes. We stopped the trail in Oturehua and wanted to return the bikes to the bike hire shop in Middlemarch in the morning to avoid getting charged for an additional day. The 'catch-a-bus' service had long-gone by that time, so the only option was to hitchhike! As this was Barbara's first hitchhike experience, she was pleasantly surprised to discover that it isn't only psycho killers who are interested in picking up strangers. It was almost 100km back to our car in Middlemarch, so we expected several rides to get there. The first lady was a grandmother coming home from work. The second ride came from a skydiving instructor from Queenstown who had a 2 week old baby at home and was driving to Palmerston because his father had just had a heart attack. He was well-traveled himself, and at that point in need of a distraction. The third and longest stretch of 50km was a bit trickier but led us into an incredible evening with a very kind and generous Kiwi family. As we waited on the road for the 3rd ride, the sun started to go down and there wasn't a car in sight. We noticed a house across the road with several cars in the driveway. We were pretty much stuck in the middle of nowhere, so I stayed with the bags and Barbara went to go ask for help. The house belonged to Rose & Mo who were just about to have supper with their 2 boys. It turns out we weren't the first strangers to come knocking on their door for assistance! Although it's not the only house in the area, it is the most visible in an area that is all farmland. Mo kindly agreed to drop us off and Rose insisted we come in "for a feed first"!! We spent the evening eating and chatting and learned a heap about the region and country from them. Such a great experience!!


Drive through the Catlands
The drive through Central Otago and the Catlands was very beautifully. I was fascinated by the ever changing landscape.




We picked up some eggs at a farm and there Barbara finally got to cuddle a little lamb.


On of the high light was Nugget Point.



Waterfall Day
Yesterday we had our waterfall day ;-)


Fire in the tunnel
There was just a small sign on the side of the road for this old rail tunnel. It turned out to be the perfect location for some fire staff playing.


The lost Gypsy
This old bus is loaded with little gizmos and gadgets. Feels like being on a play ground. So much fun!!!!!


Push to gurgle



Shag Point
We made it to the south most point on the South Island.

Christchurch to Dunedin

Warning: Some of the pictures in the following post could be disturbing for some people!
We finally left Christchurch behind!!!
On Barbara's Birthday we did a SKYDIVE together! Really crazy to jump out of a plain.


On the way down to Dunedin we saw some seals, shags, the first penguin and this cool old boat shed.


Barbara likes hugging hedges now!?!


These round boulders on a beach half way between Christchurch and Dunedin look like they are from outer space


Seaweed impressions in still...


...and motion
[I'll upload teh video later, this internet cafe is just too slow]


The last few days he have been staying at Otago Peninsular. Really nice but most the time the weather is pretty crappy.


A day on a sheep padic:

You might come across a nice little sheep tail like this and wounder why they loose them.


The little baby sheep still have them.


The farmers put very strong rubber bands around them


so all the circulation gets cut off and they fall off. The farmers do that so that the sheep don't get their own shit all over the tail.


You will probably also find a lot of bones.








And maybe even a dead sheep.


One of the sheep skulls is now on the front of our van and hopefully will keep away all evil.


We had some bad luck with the van before. The wind was so strong that it blew the driver's door out and now its buggered up and doesn't open any more. I hope I'll be able to fix it up back in Auckland with Sanchio. Also the van tends to over heat when we go up steep hills. We just had it in the garage but after half a day of working on it they still didn't find the problem. They wanted us to come back on Monday but we think we will just leave. It's only a problem when going uphill, on the flat its totally fine and I just don't want to spend any more money on cars.

Photographic Playground

Some new shots



and video

Christchurch is comming to an end

It's about time to leave the city. Feel like a haven't traveled for so long.
Unfortunately quite a lot shit happened in the last few days/weeks.
But one good think is that I finished my dive instructor exam and are now a PADI SCUCA INSTRUCTOR!!!!
Had had some shit luck with my car, first it broke down and it cost me $2000 to get it fixed and then some f***er tried to brake into it. Luckily the car is still there but the lock is a bit buggered now.
I went to manpower to get a job and they put me to Tyco, a big electronic manufacturing company. I started off doing terminating, basically putting little plugs onto cables. Bloody boring and after talking to manpower for like 10 times they put me onto something else. Now I'm doing inwards good processing - taking parcels from all the couriers opening them, entering the goods into the computer and putting them away in the shelfs. Lots better!
So in about a week I'll be back on the road!!!!

Acupuncture

I just had my first Acupuncture experience. After washing so many dishes my left thumb mussel was a bit sore. So I gave Barbara's Acupuncture needles a go. At first I was a bit scared of poking needles into myself but it was by far not as bad as expected. And the best thing it actually helped.

More of Christchurch

Just some more photos this time...

...of Christchurch


...and the Botanical Gardens

Van is f#&$ed again and the life in Christchurch

My van is broken again. I just can't believe how unlucky I am with cars.
It's probably gonna cost me $1500 to get it fixed.
Well hopefully I will have a job again next week as a kitchen hand, Monday is my trial day.
My Dive Instructor course started this week and already I'm bored of all that PADI (Put Another Dollar In) bullshit. The teacher mainly just reads out off his book and we watch Power Point Slides on the computer screen. On Monday we'll do the first training session in the pool. I hope that will be a bit more exciting.
Barbara will hopefully get a job at one of the major hotels here doing Spa massages. She already had kind of an interview and is waiting for the manager to get back to her.
Apart from the boredom at PADI and the kaput van I still love Christchurch - and today the sun is out and I finally feels like I'm warming up.