A Light-hearted Trip to Dunedin

Salutations to all!

On my four days off, Rowen, Philipe, Nina, and I went on a road trip to Dunedin which is located on the east coast of the south part of the South Island. All was gay and merry while on the road. I have pictures to prove it. Here they are:

We commandeered a 1943 Toyota Corolla we borrowed from a friend named Sarah. I would guess it is 6.23 horsepower with five gears and a break pedal that was probably borrowed from a riding lawnmower. This car could not accelerate up even the smallest hill! We made many stops for beautiful pictures. In this particular beautiful picture, Rowen is making believe he is a hitchhiker, a super cool hitchhiker. I also took a picture too.

And here it is. Doesn't it remind you of the logo of that one film company where the lightening bolt laser-beams down onto the car or road or something??? This is a good lesson in perspective. How many kinds of perspective can you name, students?


Just to make sure, Officers, I was wearing my seat belt. My faux hawk was also helping steer the car.


We stopped at Te Anau Downs because this awesome vista punched us right in the face.


We stayed at a hostel in Dunedin called "Hogwartz." This is a picture of our room which had four beds (none of them bunks) and our own sink. It was very very excellent. Note to the future backpacking traveler: travel in groups of four. That way you pay the same price as everyone else, but you usually can get your own room (because rooms are often "quads"). Note to the future sesquipedalian: "quad" means four, so a 'quad' has four beds in it. Beds you sleep in.


This is the hostel owner...

uhhimm!!! Excuse me (I had something in my throat)

owner'ses dog. It would put on a miniature visor and do the taxes.


Speaking of Hogwartz, doesn't this building look like something out of Harry Potter!?! Well you're wrong! It is actually the Dunedin train depot. It is designed in the Flemish Renaissance style, which does not mean that it is covered in mucus, but rather bricks– bricks that were quarried from the Otago peninsula. I heard that the depot is haunted, but then I realized that it was myself telling myself that.



Here is what the inside looks like. It was so busy in there that I was almost swept off my feet by the busy mob. Just kidding, it was deserted. Students, how many kinds of perspective do you seen in this photo?



For breakfast the next morning, we went to this cafe called "Governors," which I had fun saying the way ignorant Americans think that the English accent sounds (to Rowen and Nina's entertainment).


When I was directed to the bathroom up the stairs, I was about to take a bath when I realized that the tub was actually filled with fish. It was a fish aquarium!!!


Later that day, Nina went to go see the new Twilight movie the seventh time while Rowen, Philipe, and I went to the St. Clair Beach with hopes of going surfing. To our dismay, we found that the wind was probably gusting at 60mph creating a monstrous surf that would have murdered us all. It was also way too cold for me to get wet. So we ended up going to the St. Clair salt water pool.


The water was a sizzling 28 degrees, Celcius, which was 8 degrees warmer than the air. This should have registered to me before I payed my NZ$5.50 for admission, but it didn't so I was freezing most of the time. That small pool looked like a hot tub from my view, but was actually a freezing tub that was about two feet deep. Maybe it was a kiddy pool? We all found ourselves using the free goggles they gave us and swimming laps to stay warm.


After swimming we went down to the beach because we wanted to get blown to smithereens by the mutant wind monster and get sand blasted into every orifice we possessed. This picture shows the linear wisps of sand the wind would kick up as it howled by us.


But the dedicated photographers did not waiver. They still took framable pictures of wind-demolished piers like this one.


Later that day, the travelers drove along the Otago peninsula to the tip where one can find the Royal Albatross Center where you have to pay NZ$40 to see a frickin' wild albatross!!! We, on the other hand, felt that free would have been a better price, so we went over to the edge of where unpaid patrons could wonder with hopes of seeing an albatross.


I think I could make one out so I got my money's worth, right??? I could also see another funny New Zealand bird called a "Shag" living on the cliffs. They look kind of like a penguin, but are a flying bird.


Normally, I wouldn't willfully go to a place with "sandfly" in its name (this was called Sandfly Bay), but with the wind being as crazy as it was, I was sure all the sandflies were located in Australia by then, so we were sandfly-free. Warm, on the other hand, we were not.


This is the lighthouse at Nugget Point. It was drizzling by this time, which was a relief because if it were full out raining, we would have died. The wind was blowing rain into us like BBs.


Here is the beautiful view from Nugget Point. For some reason, whenever I hear the word "nugget," I get hungry for Chicken McNuggets. Damn you McDonalds!!! Why must you steel such wonderful words from me!?!?!


This is Purakaunui Falls, which looks kind of like a wedding cake to me. Actually as I write this, everything looks like food because I am so hungry right now. I haven't eaten since breakfast....


Mmmm, cotton candy..............

On the highway before we reached Te Anau, we were hit by a stunning sunset. The sunset was so beautiful that it surrounded us and I couldn't figure out how to give it justice with a mere photograph so I took a video too, but it is too big to upload. Sorry.

And now, I must eat something with melted cheese in it.

Until next time. :)

Baby Weka

We had a New Zealand moment on Monday. When I walked outside our staff building, I heard this loud peeping sound– kind of like the sound Teddy (our family dog) makes when he gets stuck in the stairway, except multiply the volume by 1000. It was about that time I noticed two adult Wekas running around. I thought it was weird because I thought the peeping was coming from one of the adults, but none of them were opening its beak to vocalize (it was a sound that was difficult to localize). I thought it was amazing that it could get this kind of volume without opening its kisser. It was then that Sophie realized that the sound wasn't coming from one of the adults, but a chick that had gotten stuck in the drain on the side of our staff building. It was cold, wet, dirty, distressed, and peeping loudly on a slow, consistent schedule. Sophie picked it out and wrapped it in a towel to keep it warm.


She put it on the ground to see if it would go off with its parents, but they only came to peck at it dangerously as it continued to loudly peep. We were worried that now that it had our scent, it was being ostracized by its parents. We were due for another Milford Sound cruise so Sophie took the chick and put it in a box in her room to keep it warm, dry (it was raining btw), and safe from its peck-happy parents. When we came back from the cruise, the chick had regained it's strength, had escaped the box, and was running around her room pooping on the floor and her bed.

The end

P.S. She let it go. Fair thee well, young Weka. Fair thee well!

More about comments

Hi Everyone,

I thought I should give more instructions about how to leave comments. I realized that if you are just looking at the homepage of my blog, you see each post in chronological order without any divisions, and no comments. To see comments for each individual blog post, you have to click on the title of the post in the menu on the left side of the screen. It will direct you to a separate page with just that blog post and will include comments. From there, you click a link to leave a comment on the bottom of the screen which will pop up a new window. If it doesn't work, you might need to disable your pop-up blocker.

I will be posting new blog posts soon.

Cheers,
Drew

Comments are fixed

Hi everyone,

Many of you probably realized that comments weren't working before, but I fixed it now. You still need to use either your gmail, AIM, etc account, or create an account on blogspot to comment. Looking forward to hearing from everyone now :)

Snowy Drive to Te Anau

Hi All,

On my last day off, which was Monday, November 16th, the area only a couple hundred meters above us got snow and I woke up (once again) to find the mountains around me dusted with white. Itching to get out of here and see something new, I volunteered to go with Ben to Te Anau and pick up our shuttle bus that had been gone for two weeks getting Milford Sound Lodge and its logo stickered on the front. I didn't photograph the entire trip, but once we got up into the snowy region, it was too pretty not to.


This is the tunnel you have to pass through to get down to Milford. It is the highest in elevation you get during the drive so it was where the snow was the deepest. I think it is around 600m high. The tunnel is only one lane so there is a set of stop lights that work on 15-minute intervals, so when you have a red light, you know you have enough time to get out and snap some pictures.


This is the view looking down the road from the tunnel.


You always need a picture with yourself in it. Ben was waiting in the car so I took one of myself.

In Te Anau, I took the opportunity to buy four boxes of muesli and other essentials. I should also mention that New Zealand is known for their dinner pies. I bought one at a local dairy (their term for a convenience store), which had beef and cheese, and it was delicious. The crust is chewy on the inside, but crispy on the outside. Perfect! :)

That's all for now.

Sunny Milford Sound Cruise

Hi Everyone! We had five days of sun here in Milford which makes the guests feel like it is usually this way and then when we have monsoon rains like we have had for the past two days, they get really cranky and/or sad. I took the opportunity to take a cruise on one of the a sunny days.


Even though it was sunny, it was really windy and cold.


These silly Japanese people were wearing funny looking, clear rain ponchos and I couldn't help but take a picture of them and put it in my blog. Did they realize that when there is no cloud in the sky, it pretty much means that there is a 0% chance of rain? Who knows :-P


This picture is a good example of how everything is so big in Milford Sound that your sense of depth is screwed up. Look at the size of the ferry boat in relation to that waterfall. That ferry boat is a smaller boat, but it is still dwarfed in relation to the mountain and the falls cascading down. Because it was such a dry day, the water falls were much smaller than usual.


This is the view from the bridge. The captain not only drives the gigantic boat, but also picks up the microphone and makes comments. The girl sitting next to him translates it into Japanese. The captain gets to sit in an air cushioned chair. Instead of a large ship wheel, he uses a tiny joystick that sits on the end of one of his chair arms. It was a pretty cool view from there!

Sorry for the quick post, but I need to go cook dinner for all my coworkers now. I am making either roasted garlic with french bread (or just garlic bread depending on how much garlic we have available), and Velveeta™ macaroni and cheese that my beautiful girlfriend sent me from USA.

Cheers!

Milford Cruise

Hey Everyone,

I have been working at Milford Sound Lodge for a week now and have gotten pretty settled in and am starting to become a well-trained, helpful employee. My current shift is called "reception night," which means that I start working reception at 2pm, help check in all the guests for the night, drive the shuttle (which, for the time being, is the first model of Toyota Rav4 and is about to both run out of gas and fall apart) to and from the cafe and boat terminal, take an hour break from 9 to 10pm, and then clean and close. I like this shift much better than the last one; making beds has always been one of my least favorite things to do. Having to make somewhere around 70 beds in a 5-hour span leaves me both in a bad mood, and in great amounts of pain. Working reception can have busy bouts of stress, but all in all, it is better than the latter (which also included cleaning the bathrooms. Yay!)

On Tuesday, three of my coworkers and I took a cruise down Milford Sound and back. It is one of the many cruises we book from the Lodge (giving our guests a great discount in the process), so it is always a good idea to experience your product yourself so you can better answer any questions the guests might have.

This is the ship we took. It is bigger than it looks in this picture. It has four levels. The basement is where the buffet is. There are two decks with tables and booths and big windows to look out of, and the roof is the observation deck. It is called the Milford Sovereign, but there are many other boats.


Here's a picture of me standing awkwardly on the back of the ship.


The fur seals were some of the wildlife we saw on the cruise. We also saw a penguin, but it was too far away to take a picture. We also saw a dragon, but it flew by too fast for me to get my camera out... or it ate my camera or something. The seals were fighting over the rock on which they were laying. Apparently, the one at the top of the rock is the meanest one so it has no friends.


This is called a "waterfall." In New Zealand, they refer to them as "waterfalls." They occur when water falls. This particular "waterfall" is called Stirling Falls. The boat drives right up to it and you can stand on the prow of the ship and get wet if you want. I did it in my rain coat. It was fun :)


This is Bowen Falls. It is located just around the corner from the terminal (part of which you can see in the lower right hand corner).


This is Jamie (from the UK) and Hanna (from Germany) who work with me. Nina (also from the UK) is in the background hiding. She is WWOOFing at the Lodge: she works four hours a day for room and board, but no pay.

That's all for now.

Milford Sound Lodge

Hello all,

I apologize about having not blogged in a while. I have been busy working my new job at Milford Sound Lodge.

So, picking up where left off: I hired a car to drive from Christchurch to Queenstown (about a 6-hour drive). I got a low, "relocation" rate for the car because rental companies always need cars moved around. I payed $5 (plus a booking fee) for the car. The drive to Queenstown was beautiful and the sky was completely sunny and blue.

You pass several lakes along the way that are this aqua blue color– the result of finely ground glacial sediment that washes into it. This is Lake Pukaki that beautifully frames Mt. Cook (to the right of me) which is the tallest mountain in New Zealand. It is part of the Southern Alps.

I didn't stay in Queenstown for too long (not even a day), so I didn't get any pictures of it. I will be visiting the city often during my four-day work vacations.


The lodge rigged up a free seat on a tour bus that picked me up from my Hostel in Queenstown and drove me to Milford (stopping several times along the way). It is about a 5-hour drive, but took a lot longer because of the "tour" part of it. The driver was very knowledgeable and it was nice learning about the area and New Zealand in general via his headset microphone as we drove. We stopped for a couple hikes and a wildlife center to see some of New Zealand's unique birds.

I took this picture from the parking lot during the tour. Beautiful valleys like this one surrounded us during the drive, and surround me now at the lodge. You can imagine the glacier sliding along this valley during the last ice age shaping it into what you see here.

This region of New Zealand is actually the third wettest area in the world. It averages around 7 METERS of rain per year!!! Needless to say, it rains every day, but not for that long. As a result of all the rain, we have countless waterfalls, like this one, that cascade down the mountain faces beside us.

The rainforest that fills Fiordland National Park (within which the lodge is located), is green with trees, ferns, moss, and lichens.


The wildlife (or should I say birdlife– New Zealand has no indigenous land mammals) is also rainforest-like. This is a Kea. It is the only alpine parrot in the world and is extremely intelligent and mischievous. Since birds filled all the niches that weren't filled by mammals, this bird is kind of like America's raccoons; they get into the garbage and terrorize things.

Another picture of a Kea perched on the bus.


The bus dropped everyone off at Milford's boat terminal where everyone else was leaving for a cruise, but not me. This was my final destination for the next five months. I snapped a picture because... WOULDN'T YOU!?!

Milford Sound Lodge is located up the road about 15 minutes by foot, but luckily a girl named Charlotte gave me a lift. My backpack is oversized ;) The lodge is remote to say the least. The nearest town, Te Anau– a town of 3,000– is about an hour and a half drive down a two-lane paved road that weaves through a deep valley carved out by glaciers. There is no cell phone reception here, but we have internet and TV. This is a picture of me posing in front of a couple of the lodge structures. The building in the background is the private staff building (called Saigon). It is where our shared kitchen/dining room/living room, two bathrooms, and living spaces are. The building in the foreground is the men's and women's bathroom.


This is a view from the other side of Saigon.


This is one of the three "rapid room" buildings (as they call it). My room is the second from the left. It is as simple as can be.


This is what my room looks like inside. I have one window and two dressers. I also have an electric heater that keeps me warm at night. I will soon also require a dehumidifier.


The bathrooms are a short walk from my room. There is a guy's and girl's room. Right now, I share the guy's room with one other person, but we will get more people filling up the other rapid rooms soon. The bathroom consists of one flushable toilet and one shower. I was pleased to find the shower has hot water and great pressure, but is really small.


This is the main lodge with reception, the lounge, the guest kitchen, eating area, a small shop, guest laundry, and most of the guest rooms.


Here's another view of the main lodge.


And a closer look at the main entrance to the main lodge. Reception is right through this door.

That's all for now.

Cheers!