dunedin

hmmm, what can i say... i left wanaka with its beautiful weather to come back to the east coast to have bloody rain again - yeeeii!!! the drive wasnt that spectacular, but like ive said before, it felt good to be driving again... =) coming into dunedin was an adventure itself: for the first time in nz i was on a motorway (on the left!) which was , i have to admit, a bit freaky! thank god there wasnt much traffic... the problem was just that the motorway was really steap: nothing like ive ever seen before! so steap, that i was driving 80/90 k at the bottom and had to go down in gear, till i arrived at the top - only going at 50 k!!! was so embarassing!!! probably could have got a ticket for slow driving, but i couldnt do ANYTHING!!! =)

so, yup, that was a small adventure... the hostel itself wasnt stunning: theres no daylight since there are no windows in the lounge and kitchen... i was staying in a 10-people-dorm and the moment i got in there i just wanted to get out: the stench was aweful and it was stuffy as hell!!! there were windows in the worms, but you could only open then as much as 10 cm - nice. so you can understand that i was only glad to get out and breathe fresh air, even though it was raining. that night i just chilled at the hostel and we watched star wars episode 1 - i have to educate myself while im here: not having seen any of the star wars movies is really not good for my image as a movie fanatic... =)
anyways, the next day i went to see baldwin st (steepest street in the world - according to the guiness book of records). just have a look at the pictures. i was with an australian and a girl from israel.it WAS really steap, i have to say. i really wouldnt want to go up/down there with ANY vehicle nor roller blades nor even attempt to run down there - too bloody steap! the coolest thing, though, was that the footpath wasnt just flat, but the street is actually so steap that they had to make stairs instead to make it easier to climb it. when i was up there i just thought that i really would have hated to be the postman in the 50s... that guy has my sympathy! anyways, had lots of fun all day, lunch at subway and then decided to get a movie for the night. SAW. im always freeked out watching it but i still like it (horror)- as long as im in good company!!! =) so, yup, pretty freaky movie - tops the ring, the omen and everything else ive seen so far...
day after that i just had another look around town - always with new people... one cool thing about this hostel, though, is that theyve got magazines... so after having read the cosmopolitan i felt so feminie again!!! =) F.Y.I.: apparently the 'shob' (shoulder bob) is in this season - so im confident enough to say that im a real trend setter! =)
yesterday i decided to go and have a look at the penguins - since i postponed that when i was in oamaru... i really hesitated, though, since the tour cost $57! but i hadnt seen that much of dunedin, so i almost felt obliged (also because you were expecting me to, mum =) so i did... it was about an hour drive to the otago peninsula and we started out at 3 pm. the penguins return from sea at dusk... we got to the 'station' where they have one of the two albatross 'herds' in the world that breed on mainland. but since that cost another $30 i passed on that one! the yellow eyed penguins - which we went to see later on - are very rare and they only have them here in nz. theyre really cute, but quite big. (had to think of max =)mum and dad, you guys would have loved it!!! they had these trenches built and they are really well disguised so you can get as close as maybe 7m to the penguins... their 'cries' are pretty loud, though, and a bit 'freaky' as well - one even made me jump. =)hmm, its kinda hard to get it across - its hard to describe... just know, that it was pretty amazing. the whole trip took about 5 to 6 hours and i was completely exhausted when we got back - though i didnt really do heaps, aye?! went to bed early.
and now im about to drive down to the catlins...
cheers