Cider, History, and Penguins

We kicked off this past weekend with a cider tasting event at our apartment. Craig and I (okay, mostly me) were very excited to find several different varieties of cider here in new zealand. They cannot replace our beloved woodchuck but they do a pretty good job of filling in. In any case, we found a couple of fellow Americans here who also know of "chuck" but call it "juice." Craig met Dan at the University. He and his wife, Emily, came over on Friday night to taste some cider. The drinks menu consisted of the following ciders: Harvest, Scrumpy, Grannypash, Old Mout (Cidre, Scrumpy, and Hard Cider varieties), and Balley Dooley Red. The consensus was that Old Mout Cidre (a French Cider) was the favorite, followed closely by Grannypash, Scrumpy, and Harvest. BallyDooly Red Cider finished last but actually was found to become more tasty after the first few sips. It was nice to spend an evening with some new friends and new beverages.
Saturday brought continued ridiculous amounts of rain and cold from the previous 4 days. We're not sure the sun still exists as we haven't seen it for more than 2 minutes in about 7 days now. Anyway, the weather discouraged outdoor activity so we ventured to the Otago Museum, which is nicely heated. There we saw exhibits related to the history of Otago and the rest of New Zealand, nature (both past and present) on the island, and some info on the Pacific Islands. It was pretty extensive and interesting. There are some very large, strange birds here! All in all, it was a relaxed, educational day. Oh, and cheap, the museums in Dunedin are free.
Upon waking Sunday morning, the rain was still falling but we decided to go out anyway. We drove North, through Trotters Canyon, up to Moeraki Beach and its famous boulders. This place was really cool. It is a beach with these huge, perfectly round boulders, some bigger than us. It was fun to walk on the beach and climb on the rocks. And the rain even stopped for the most part as soon as we left Dunedin.


Moeraki Boulders Maori Legend Info

After the beach, we drove slightly South to a place called Katiki Point. This place was so awesome! We hiked around on the tops of the cliffs where there is an old but still functioning lighthouse, until we spotted some seals. Some were swimming in the ocean and one even had some kind of fish for dinner! It was tossing it around, sometimes away and then would dive to catch it again. Many other seals were lying on the beach or on rocks. There were a few different varieties, Fur Seals, Elephant Seals, and Hooker Seals. I was able to walk up to within about a meter or two of one until it grunted and revealed to me its very large teeth (the recommended distance is 5 meters).




Soon after the first seals, we saw some penguins! These Yellow-Eyed Penguins are special in New Zealand because they are endangered and were once nearly extinct. They have come back somewhat in numbers but there are still only 1000 of these penguins in all of NZ. Also, they are known for their "shyness" around humans so we were lucky to see them and get pretty close.


Then we left the wildlife and took Shaggy to Shag Point where we had a walk along the beach. This spot is known for its coal mining days and had some pretty views of the ocean and rocks below. One thing we could see here, as well as at most other rocky beaches is the seaweed. The seaweed here is crazy. Each strand is about 18 inches wide and really long. It looks like a pile of black rubber when washed up on the beach. And the stalks that hold it in the ocean floor are about 4 inches in diameter. It's like seaweed on steroids! Gigantic.

Coastal Pictures
To finish the day, we drove down the coast, through Karitane, and back to Dunedin, a very scenic drive. Interesting point learned: Dunedin is the 4th largest city in the world by land mass. Pretty funny when you know how small the actual city is. 120, 000 people and you can walk everywhere. The actual city boundaries are out there though. Another interesting food fact: They have these GROSS flavors of chips here, ranging from Chicken to Lamb & Mint flavors. Who wants their chips to taste like meat? We have not been brave (or stupid) enough to try them but they do not get good reviews from the Americans.
Anyway, it turned out to be a great weekend, regardless of the crappy weather.