A Lot of Nothing

For those who read this that are illiterate, you can skip this post as no pictures will be added. Last week brought a nice spring like feel to Dunedin and Katie and I were glad to take part by playing outside. Dunedin weather is notorious for being cold and rainy, so we have been taking advantage when it's not. Last Tuesday after work we headed down to St. Clair beach and rode some waves along with quite a few surfers. We have not yet purchased boards so we just body surfed and enjoyed the evening. Daylight now lasts until at least 9 at night. Wednesday was also quite nice and after dinner we headed across the street to the Dunedin Botanical Gardens. The gardens are great because they are right across the street, huge, and best of all, free. All the flowers are blooming and it smells great. We threw the football around for a while and then wandered through enjoying the sights and scents.

Thursday through Saturday I attended the Sports Medicine New Zealand conference where I presented some of my dissertation research. The conference and presentations went well and I made some good contacts. Conferences here are much smaller than those I have been to at home and they feed you! Everyday they gave us and AM and PM tea time with cookies or cakes and tea/coffee. Also, they provided lunch for everyone in attendance everyday. Needless to say I took advantage of this and look forward to future conferences down under. Last week Katie also got a contract extension at the University! She is now gainfully employed until the end of January at which point she better have heard from the Physiotherapy Board.

Katie was stuck at home on Saturday while I conferenced. She was rewarded with sunny skies and 31 degree temps (87 for those Fahrenheiters). I cut out a little early from the conference and we both went and played in the ocean again. It is fun to live so close to the ocean that you can just head over for an hour or so. Neither of us have had that option before and we will hopefully continue to take advantage while we are here. That night was still summery so we went downtown for a beer and just relaxed and enjoyed our beverages outside.

Our apartment hunting has been going OK. We have gone to check out a few places and are still on the hunt. Sunday we picked up some friends from the airport after they went back to the States for a wedding. Katie and I were both glad to not be the ones getting adjusted to an 18 hour time change this week. After dropping them off and some grocery shopping, we checked out a couple more apartments without much luck. The afternoon was spent calling people from home and hiking through the Botanical Gardens again. We both have been through there many times and we're still finding trails we haven't seen before. We also stumbled upon an aviary in the gardens. While looking at several dozen varieties of exotic and New Zealand birds may sound peaceful, we found out otherwise. Some of the parakeets were screeching to each other so loud we couldn't hear each other talk. We now know why the aviary is in the middle of the gardens. Maybe sometime soon we will bring the camera to share what we've been seeing there.

This past week some people we know got older. We thought mentioning this may somehow enhance their aging. Happy Birthday John, Kimi, and Lily!

If anyone needs a certified New York State lawyer I can recommend one in Baltimore, congrats Tina for passing the bar.

Next update will surely have some pictures as we just booked our tickets go backpacking on Stewart Island. Stewart Island is the third largest island of New Zealand and is south of the South Island. Over 80% of the island is a national park and kiwis live there. Hopefully our pix next post will prove this.