Jen Hillam: Christchurch to Dunedin

"This isn't vacation" was my thought as our alarm went off at an hour way to early to be enjoyed after our late night out on the beach. But like the awesome travelers we were, we had set a time schedule because we didn't want to waste too much of our valuable daylight driving.With only rubble to see in Christchurch we figured it best to get an early move to Dunedin. For breakfast we has the same cereal the All Blacks eat, Wheatbix and our chocolate cupcake leftovers.We made one last attempt at driving through the center of town with no luck. It was still quite the bustling city but you could tell business was suffering. I felt bad for the people there, I have never experienced anything of that magnitude and I respect the people that are making the best of the situation. I can't imagine what I would do.

The drive to Dunedin went by quickly as we talked and played games in the car. We basically went through every well known male (and females for Josh) celebs in sets off 3 as we said who we would "marry, date, or dump." From classical romanitcs like Nat King Cole and Micheal Buble to young stars and even a few animated characters. But it was fun and we all had ridiculous reasons as to why we liked certain people. So throughout this trip we realized there were a few things we didn't plan on. For example today, it was lunch. Fun fact: New Zealand isn't like the USA and there aren't fast food places just off the highway everywhere, unless of course you bring a stove with you and are in the mood for some lamb. So we were all getting a bit hungry but really wanted to get to Dunedin and so we didn't have to stop. So we got a little creative. If you are going to judge us for what we made for lunch you can stop reading now. But as far as resources we had some bread, wheatbix, leftover noodles from the night before, and peanut butter. Wheatbix is basically impossible to eat dry so that was out. So I think it all started with Marian making Josh a peanut butter sandwich and then Marian got a little more creative, she made a frosting sandwich and jokingly I offered her the left over noodles because she wanted something else for her sandwich, so my surprise, she said yes. So it came down to us 4 crazy college kids eating frosting, noodle, peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. After sitting in a car for 4 or so for some reason this idea seemed not too far out, looking back now, I have no idea what we were thinking. Best of all we had no utensils so we spread all the ingredients with our fingers. Wow after all of that I appreciate those of you who are still with me reading this.

About an hour later we arrived in Dunedin. We quickly checked into our hostel and then literally sprinted to the Cadbury Factory...not because we were eager to eat more chocolate but because we were late for our tour and wanted to work off some of the chocolate frosting we had just consumed before we went to eat more. So we arrived just a few minutes late for our tour but only missed a few minutes of the movie so it was all good. The tour was great! They gave us some candy to start and we watched a movie on the founding of the factory. Our tour guide Cocoa Joe dressed in purple overalls took us all around the factory. He would give us more chocolate as we went and even more when we answered questions about what we learned. He showed us how all the different types of chocolate are made and the huge machines they use. We went up into one of the silos they used to store chocolate mass and they had set up a chocolate waterfall! We walked in and squished up against the wall and Cocoa Joe opened massive tube that just dumped liquid chocolate down the length of the silo! In the end we got to eat some of the fresh chocolate that was still in liquid form. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit sick of chocolate at this point to really enjoy it, but it was still pretty good. I did buy a few more chocolate bars in the gift shop because they were cheaper then they are anywhere else and they are straight from the factory!

After getting all cocoa-ed out we met Alyssa's friend Sophie, a local Dunediner. She took us on a little tour to Otago point. We saw great views of the harbor and the city. We swung across the peninsula to a wildlife reserve and despite the bone chilling coastal winds we walked down to the beach in search of some wildlife. There were signs everywhere saying how you have to basically camp-out for an hour to wait for the penguins to come in because they won't come if they see people moving around. I didn't really want to wait so I went penguin hunting! It started at the edge of the ocean where I saw penguin tracks going up the beach. It is like one of those things where I have never seen penguin tracks but when you know, you know. I followed the tracks and soon heard the sound of a bird I have never heard before so I kept going. The beach led into an incredibly steep hill covered in bushes but I was a hunter so overcame the rugged terrain in search of my prey ha ha. And there is was...a penguin! Just hanging out in the bushes. I thought for sure it would run away but I guess I kind of had it cornered. And so I got closer and closer until I was in reaching distance of the penguin and got some really great close of photos. After I got my photos, I thought hey, I have never touched a penguin before....ya bad idea so as I reached my finger to give it a little pet, I realized it was a really bad idea and didn't do it. Instead...I used a stick, and whoa! I am glad didn't use my finger because that bird when crazy and started attacking the stick! I might have lost my finger. Now I realize that was not a good idea in the first place and pretty disrespectful and not nice to the penguin but selfishly I did it anyway, sorry. After our penguin encounter we moved further down the beach to the group of sleeping sea lions. Now I may be a little selfish but fortunately I am not stupid, so don't worry I didn't even think of poking these massive beasts. They were all just hanging out on the beach taking a little nap. A few rolled around and one rolled down the beach a ways before it finally got up and waddled into the ocean. It was a lot of fun to see some real New Zealand wildlife.

After our super nutritious day we had decided we were going out to dinner because there were supposed to be some really great places in Dunedin. So of course we had to stick with the unhealthy theme of the day and get pizza. Mostly it was just because they had a Monday night special for half off and ended up being a lot of really good pizza for super cheap. Afterwards we really wanted to go out because Dunedin was supposed to have the best live music and shows at night...unfortunately it was Monday, and you have to have one hoppin' city here to find anything to do on weeknights with such small populations. So it was back to the hostel, which I don't think any of us minded after a long day. Although our hostel was quite a little adventure as well. It was a place Kaitlyn, Jessica, and Layton would all be envious of, we stayed at Hogwartz!. It was this cute hostel filled with Harry Potter paraphernalia. Alyssa was in heaven. She has purposefully reserved this place and was so excited to stay here. We had a great few of the city and a neighboring cathedral. After a nice toasty shower for me to warm up, we went a took over the tv room and watched the first Lord of the Rings to see so far how our journey has compared and well it was basically exactly the same, I mean ya there were a few minor changes but really watch that movie, that is what you do here ha ha jk. But really it was cool to check out the landscapes in that movie and realize that was really all around us! It was really exciting, even though I did fall asleep for most of it, I had an excuse as it was my turn to drive the next day!