Wednesday, January 16, 2013

of Chocolate, Albatrosses and Steep roads.

Our first afternoon in Dunedin was taken up by Cathy's trip to get her cast removed, X-rayed and checked out. Zak, Emma and I cruised off to a park to wait, had a swing. I took out the map to see where the next days attractions were. Looking at the map, admiring a big green strip, thinking that it would have a bunch of great parks etc but on driving thought it realized it is green space because it is just too steep to be anything else!

The first stop on Saturday morning was Cadbury World. There are static presentations about the history of the company, making chocolate, products and advertising and a bit of a tour. Unfortunately, the factory wasn't running so we didn't get to tour through it. We were given a few chocolate bars and brought some more to ensure we had snacks for the next few weeks. (I give it 10 days tops before it is all gone. We'd halved it in the first two).

Walking back toward our motel we stopped in to the Museum for a quick look. We headed toward the nature section and checked out bits about seals, penguins and birds which we have seen on our travels. They also have a butterfly aviary with hundreds of tropical butterflies. It was about 30C in here - a nice change from outside. All of us had butterflies land on us while there but Emma had one on her finger for the whole time! They don't breed the butterflies - the chrysalises come by mail from South America.



The albatross colony on the peninsula was our next stop. They had great presentations about their life, the colony and the threats and dangers that are causing ongoing reduction in the numbers of albatross around the world. After that we walked up to the viewing platform to see a few birds nesting. They sat. Occasionally, one got up and changed his position and then sat again. One we could see was just resting rather than nesting and we did get to see him spread his wings, rise off the ground and disappear down the slope out of view.



Back in town, we visited Baldwin Street which, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the steepest street in the world. Zak, Emma and I tromped to the top of the hill and released a dozen giant jaffas however it didn't appear that they survived the trip as they got up some significant speed, bounced high into the air and shattered on returning to the road or bounced off the side never to be found.

We had dinner with my cousin Giselle and her partner Dave. We weren't exactly sure how long it had been since Giselle and I last met, somewhere more than 15 years... She cooked us Thai Chicken curry and we chatted about all sorts of things. After complaining that the 3rd year botany text he had picked up had too many 'y's Giselle found Zak something more suitable which he has been chuckling about many times since.

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1 comment:

  1. The albatross centre is really well set up and am glad you managed to see it. There was a bit about the albatrosses on TV the other night and how they are trying to keep them cool by running hoses down to their nests

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