NZ Day 1 & 2: Dunedin

We arrived at Auckland International Airport at about 2am, shopped for a while at the duty free shop, however we couldn’t shop for too long as the custom officer was waiting for few of us to check out. Slept at the coachs til 5:30am, was woke up by huge crowd of people.. duno why out of sudden so many ppl were there…. As the interairport bus wasn’t operating yet, We walked to the Domestic Airport, the walk was nice and Me, Suan, Goh Left to Dunedin at 6:50am. Mike and Chian took the 7:30am Flight, but they arrived 30 mins before us.

9:30am 27th September 2008 – Arrived in Dunedin Airport (6 Degree Celcius)

Dunedin – Pronounced as “De” (The) – “Nei” – “Den”

At the Dunedin Airport

I was surprised to see Yeen waiting for us at the Luggage Belt area.. didn’t know public can walk into tat area. after the driving instructions from Yeen, we left the airport for early lunch. along the way, we were amazed to see green green grass and lots of sheeps…

Renting a car from the airport is pretty expensive, is NZD 120 per day which includes Airport Tax and Insurance from Thrifty Car Rental. 

For our Second Day Rental, it was NZD 90. The Thrifty Office is at Crawford Street which is about 5 minutes drive from the Octagon.  this is where we dropped our car after rental.

Our first lunch was at Esplanade Restaurant , we had a glimpse of the beach. However we can’t stay long as we had to rush for the 12pm tour at the Speight Brewery Museum. We ordered 2 large pizzas, Seafood and Hawaiian. Its about $30 Each, i think it worth the money – Huge mussels, Scallops and prawns.. Yummy. we couldn’t finish and Tapao home!

Speight Brewery Museum Speight Brewery was founded in 1876 by J Speight. There are several tours available throughout the day, and we booked the 12pm tour together with another 15 people who joined the same group with us. It cost $17 Per Adult. Topics covered: History of Beer (first recorded in Egypt), History of Speight, the process of Speight Beer (the ingredients, tools, machines used). the Last Part: Free Flow of 6 types of Beer!!!

Beer was recorded during the Pharoah Time.

Us listening to the Tour Guide, J Speight and Goh testing 6 types of Beer

Baldwin Street 350 metres length, is well known as it’s the world’s steepest street. At the steepest part of the street, its about 45 degree steep. Only me and Mike climbed all the way up and down, we could had get a certificate by paying $2.

In 2001 a 19-year-old University of Otago student was killed when she and another student attempted to travel down the street inside a wheelie bin. The bin collided with a parked trailer, killing one of the occupants instantly, and causing serious head injuries for the second.

Other events in baldwin Street:

The street is the venue for an annual event in Dunedin, the “Baldwin Street Gutbuster”. Every summer since the mid-1990s (usually in February), this exercise in fitness and balance involves athletes running from the base of the street to the top and back down again. The event attracts up to 1,000 competitors annually.

Since 2002, a further charity event has been held annually in July, which involves the rolling of over 30,000 Jaffas (spherical chocolate candies). Each jaffa is sponsored by one person, with prizes to the winner and funds raised going to charity.

Wait for me!!

Otago University is the Largest University in New Zealand with campus all over Dunedin and have facilities in Wellington and Auckaland. Thanks god Yeen is studying there and we get to pay a visit to this University. It was founded since 1869.

Part of the Library, the Clock and part of the huge campus

Aw.. not listening.. simply sitting there doing nothing... Mike and Chian are bad Students!!

The Octagon There are a huge Catheral church, cafes, restaurants and some shops at this Octagon Shaped Area. Nothing much to write about this place. We were there for a Tea break.

Otago Peninsula It is 30KM long and 12Km at its longest width somehow formed by and extinct volcano. Short drive from the Octagon. We went there twice, the first time we went after 5pm, most of the places were closed. We enjoyed the Harbour view and the great sunset! – where we did our very first dance. the Road is very windy and i would say is kind of dangerous to drive there as other drivers drove real fast.

We went there again the next day to visit the Larnarch Castle and to hunt for Penguins. 

Sunset @ Otago Peninsula

Korean BBQ at Yeen’s Place Yeen bought a new bbq set and we had a great dinner at her place. She prepared a lot of Meat and vegetables to keep us healthy. the Korean bbq sauce is great, and forgot to ask her for receipe! We BYO Alize Rose Liquor.
pros: great yeen’s sauce, great atmosphere
cons: Due to the cold weather, we have to sit on the portable gas-can for a long time to keep the gas warm so that we are able to light up the stove with it.

Chef: Yeen

About the Mistakes

We suppose to check in to Kiwi Nest, however Yeen managed to organise her room so that all of us can fit into it.. We didn’t chat much as we had to wake up at 6:30am to catch the Catch-a-Bus. It was the Day Light Saving Day, I didn’t set my alarm, I relied on Mike to wake us all up on time.. zzzzz.. 

A Calm voice woke me up: “Guys, I don’t want to shock all of you, but its is already 7:40am.” I wished it wasn’t true… Catch-a-bus will pick us up at 8am, it takes about 10 mins to drive there… but god!! we were not dreaming!! Everyone just rush in and out toilet, packed and left Yeen’s place within 20mins..  we arrived at the Thifty Car Rental, but couldn’t see Catch-a-bus. Called Brian of Catch-a-bus, he didn’t know what i was talking about. We waited for another few more minutes and Brian came.. he told us that our booking was for the next day… oooppsss… called yeen and told yeen to pick us up again. haha..

We laughed about the mistake mike made, how fast we could be and the mistake i made. Took a few hours nap then went to the food court at the  Meridian shopping mall in front of Yeen’s place. It cost us about $8 – $11 for a plate of Asian Mix Rice.

Larnarch Castle The Road to Larnarch Castle is amazing… we saw super green grass with thousands of Sheeps along it. We stopped by several times along the drive to take pictures of the beautiful harbour, mountains, bay, sheeps and more sheeps.

The Entrance Fee to Larnarch Castle is NZD 25 Adult and NZD 10 child, however if you just wanna check out the gardens without entering the castle, its NZD 10 and NZD 3 for child. You may wanna stay there for a night at Single/Twin/Double $250.

This is the first european style castle i ever seen. It was built by William Larnarch and he was once a banker then earn his fortune via tradings. His story is quite tragic, His first wife passed away then he married his second wife, then his second wife passed away, then he married his third wife. he later found out the affair between his eldest son and his 3rd wife, and he commited suicide by a shot on his head.

There is a room which we have to pass thru the black curtains to get in. There was this Angmo lady trying to be funny jumped out from the room and freaked me out til i fell to the floor. That room is creepy, it displayed his 3rd wife wedding dress and some victorian ladies possessions.

We enjoyed the view very much from the top of the Castle, and later the garden.

1908 Cafe & Bar is a 90 yrs old nicely decorated Cafe along the Otago Peninsula. We went in for 2 reasons: it look nice and we were hungry. We ordered coffee and 2 plates of Breads and 1 plate of dunno wat. the toppings we had are quite special, the pink one were made of Reddish. I think this place is not over priced.

Pilot Beach, used to known as ‘Hobart Town Beach’ is a place where we can see Penguins for FREE along Otago Peninsula, Thanks to the lady in 1908 for telling us about this place The Blue Penguins, smallest penguins on earth, will come home from the sea everyday at 7pm.. It was Day light saving Day, and they were back at 8pm. We arrived slightly before 7pm and waited for an hour. It was very windy but it still couldn’t stop us from waiting. there were other observants there too.. a kid showed us a sick penguin.. we could see and hear the penguin. We could see holes around the grass area, homes of the Penguins. There was a walkway for the penguins to walk up from the beach to their homes. We danced, yoga and kungfu.. while waiting. at 8pm, it was getting dark and we finally saw a group of penguins walking across the beach. We ran quickly there to observe.. too bad we couldn’t flash our cameras. They walked pretty slow.. we waited quite a while til they reached the top. Other observants told us to leave as its unfair that we disturb their (Penguins’) Privacy..

Went back to Yeen’s place to meet up with her, dropped Car at THrifty and went to Lonestar.

Lonestar is an American country music group, but here we are talking about Lone Star.  Lonestar is all over in NZ and with the theme of cowboys. The place is cool and waiter is handsome.. (still drooling) We ordered 3 main courses only but the portion is sufficient for 6 of us for dinner. The maincourse cost about NZD 25 and above.

Pros: Cheerful and Handsome Waiter

Pros:	“Beautiful Sceneries, Beautiful Buildings”
Cons:	“too quiet at nites..”
In A Nutshell:	“Quiet and Not busy City”