Penguins, Mountains, and Tents

Hello, hello! Here we are in Dunedin, a little city on the east coast of the South Island. We are in the city for a business day - interneting, shopping, having a nice lunch out somewhere.

We have had quite a few days! The trek up to the Mueller Hut at Mount Cook was spectacular. We left mid-morning on Monday, with blue skies, light winds, sunshine, and about 70 degrees - perfect for an uphill climb! The hike that day was a little over three hours of straight up (about 1800 meters), with some steep stairs, a little rock climbing, and some crumbly rocks that went sliding under you as you stepped on them. Definitely a little intimidating at first and a decently hard climb, but well worth it.

We stopped at the top of the ridge for lunch with awesome views of Mount Cook and Mount Sefton in the background. Mount Sefton was directly across from our little perch across the deep gorge below, and it was covered with spectacular icy blue, white, and gray glaciers, pouring down its sides. Every few minutes you'd hear a deep, thunder-like rumble, and know ice was falling somewhere, but you could rarely catch it with your eyes!

The Mueller Hut was superbly positioned for amazing views of the mountains, as well as the lakes and village below. It's an adorable little place, with two bunk rooms, sleeping about 28 in total. The bunks are not individual, though - more like one HUGE bunk bed, with 7 mattresses across each. So we were sleeping very close to our compadres! Of course, everyone was so exhausted by bedtime that nobody thought twice of it. Plus, I think you just get used to a total lack of privacy once you've visited a hut or two.

The hut was equipped with a kitchen with gas stoves, a wraparound porch, and a little potty, a bit off from the hut. In other words, we weren't roughing it, exactly.

We mostly relaxed that afternoon, though we did do one little side trek up to Mount Olliver, another 100 meters up. From up there, we could see all the way to Lake Pukaki! Pretty amazing.

The next morning we headed back down the mountain, and I was very thankful for the trekking poles I had rented for the trek. (I'll have to eat all those ugly words I ever said to my father, making fun of his trekking poles - they were quite handy.)Once back down, we had a quick shower and then said our goodbyes to Mount Cook.

We drove ourselves down to Oamaru that day, another little city on the east coast. Oamaru is mostly worth a visit for its beaches, which boast several blue penguin and yellow-eyed penguin colonies. We paid a whopping $20 to go to a 9 PM viewing of the blue penguins, which was really cool (though I still don't understand exactly how a place can capitalize on such a thing). The NZ Department of Conservation has set up a little penguin nesting ground, basically to protect the penguins from the tourists, who were getting too close, taking flash photos that scared the penguins, and all other matter of annoying tourist things. So now, if you pay $20, you can go sit in a little viewing area, right on the beach, and you can watch the penguins swim in, after a hard day's fishing, climb up onto the beach, and waddle their way back to their nests, where their babies are waiting for them...and HUNGRY!

The blue penguins are the smallest species of penguin in the world at about 20 cm. We were fairly close to them, but after staring at their black and white shapes for a while, they started to look like little turtles to me, or oversized roaches! They were really cute, though. I most enjoyed watching the activity over on nesting side of things, where the babies emerged from the nests and literally attacked their parents the moment they came through the door. FEED ME!

We spent that night in a little holiday park outside of the city. "Holiday parks" are these little areas of land where you can pay to bring in your camper van or motor home or tent and spend the night. They are usually fairly nice and equipped with flush toilets, showers, kitchens, etc. In terms of camping, it's a pretty easy way to go. They do cost between $16 and $28 per night per site, so while it is economical, it's not necessarily the cheapest way, considering there are free camp sites run by the Department of Conservation. Bjorn tends to prefer the free camp sites (which have basically no amenities at all); I tend to prefer the holiday parks, at least every other day.

The next day, Wednesday, we headed on to the Otago Peninsula, just outside of Dunedin. We had booked a super deluxe hostel for the evening, so when we got in that afternoon, we basically sat on the couch, enjoying the view, and relaxing. When you are living out of your car, you start to realize how much you take down time for granted. If you want to have a little break and just sit around and do nothing for a bit, you either have to sit in the stuffy car or outside in your camping chair. You have no real place to BE. So the last week, we have avoided downtime altogether, except for around mealtimes.

We spent all day yesterday exploring the Otago Peninsula, which looks eerily similar to the Banks Peninsula, our former home. We had another nice night at a holiday park last night, and that brings us to now, sitting in this little cyber cafe at a McDonald's in Dunedin. Ha!

We're having a grand time, though we are beginning to feel the pains of the budget which we have set for ourselves - $100/day (and that's for both of us, not $100 each). It sounds like quite a lot when you think about it, but once you factor in accommodation and food and gas, it goes quickly. And, of course, there's the fact that you ARE travelling, and you DO want to enjoy yourself and see the sights and immerse yourself. So everything becomes a choice - is it worth it? Should we spend $19 apiece to go through the Cadbury Factory? (That's a choice that's ahead of us today...and it's tempting.) And EVERYTHING is expensive. Every activity costs money, outside of trekking, and even that can be expensive, with hut costs and whatnot. But it's a good experience for me, and, unlike budgets I've put myself on before, I REALLY want to stick to this one. I really want it to work. So I think it will. And that damned money I earned from Vangioni's is precious.

Okay, onward! After our big city day, we are heading down to The Catlins, a little reserve area at the very southeastern end of the island. We're exploring the possibility of trying to WWOOF down there for a week or so (work for a few hours a day in exchange for accommodation and meals), but we'll probably play it by ear.

More soon! Photos for you! http://picasaweb.google.com/ellen.bucy