Holiday Part 2

Hi guys!

Hope you're all doing well. We're still having a fab time, and we don't miss you at all. Well, very much, anyway.

Here's the goss so far:

Day 5:
Taieri Gorge day. We left the B&B VERY early in the morning to arrive at the (gorgeous) Dunedin train station. Very early. Himself did his train-geek thing, taking photos etc. before we hopped on board the train to Middlemarch. Apparently the line we were on used to be in commercial use, but got closed when a rather large damn flooded it out.
It was actually quite a pleasant trip - there was lots of standing-outside-on-in-the-fresh-air-watching-the-world-go-whizzing-by. Some of the areas we travelled through were incredibly beautiful. We also got to walk over one of the (many) viaducts - for train geeks this is almost a religious experience. Himself got into trouble for taking lots of geek photos and none of the gorgeous-girlfriend variety. Grr.
Lunch was supposed to be at Middlemarch, but due to the pub bistro being useless it ended up up being eaten back on the train. I did receive a lovely message from my lovely boss (who is probably reading this message - big S, I luv ya work!) saying that after doing my job for the past 2.5 years, I've finally been transferred back into it. Hurrah! For me, this means that I don't ever have to go back and work for the evil skank who makes every one's lives miserable. Karma WILL be a bitch!
The trip back into Dunedin was nice, and I got chatting to some oyster farmers from the Bay of Islands and learned more about oyster spawning than I ever would have thought possible. I'll never look at a Kilpatrick the same way again.

Speights Tour.
After returning to Dunedin, we went to the Jerusalem of the South, the Speights Beer Brewery. People here take their Speights VERY seriously. The tour guide was a big booming man (who spoke in the previously-mentioned tour operator sing-song, but VERY loudly) who seems to love his work. The tour was okay by She Says standards - lots of enthusiasm, very little actual content.
We went to the Brewhouse next door for dinner, and frankly, it was really disappointing. The food was great, but it's difficult to enjoy a meal when the cutlery is grotty and the dumb blond waitress is, well, a dumb blond. Besides, we were both so full of beer that we couldn't eat much anyway.
It did make me think - I REALLY have missed my calling as a food critic. If only so I can leave little business cards in restaurants saying "You've been visited by [insert cool food critic name here]" to freak them out. Now that I'm a total blog addict, maybe I should start a food blog...

After dinner we wandered around a bit, and found a little cafe on the Dunedin Octagon. Hot chocolate, gas heaters, loud students and a shared couple crossword were the order of business, and then we went to see Perfect Creature, a new vampire-esque film shot in Dunedin. Three stars from She Says.

Day 6:
We started out today with a tour at Cadbury World. Fun and chocolate-y though it was, I would really recommend that next time we go, we try to do the full factory-is-operating version, and preferably NOT on the same day as a huge cruise ship comes to town. Following american pensioners up and down sets of stairs was slightly less than ideal. We made it out of the gift shop only $10 worse off.
Then followed a drive around the Dunedin area - first to Lanarch Castle. It's such a funny place - the buildings and grounds are really beautiful, the commentary bordering on lascivious, and then you realise that the whole ting was build on borrowed money that was never repaid by the dodgy bastard who was on a total ego trip in building it in the first place. The infighting between he and his children and his three wives is pretty amusing. [Especially when you find out that the eldest son and wife #3 were suspected of being... shall we say, close?]
We kept driving out to the coast, and went on a really cool wildlife tour. On old army land, the wildlife world place is a self-imposed protected area. Apparently (and I haven't checked) it's the western-most spot of the southern island, one of only 8 breeding grounds of the highly-endangered yellow-eyed penguin, and one of the few protected seal colonies for NZ fur seals.
We got to stand about 1 metre away from fur seal pups that are only about 10 months old, and they are so beautiful. They lie back and look at you the same was a cat would, throwing their necks back as if to say "worship me". The urge to try and scratch their tummies is really strong. We saw a blue penguin nesting on its eggs, and saw (and smelled) a dominant male fur seal from about 1.5 metres away. They are really amazing animals, I'm still in awe.
We drove all of the way around to the other side of Dunedin Harbour and saw the visiting cruise ship and the docks. Very beautiful.
Dinner tonight is in some sort of converted tram...