Deep South Monday 1/28/08

The band has finished sometime during the night—we missed the finale—and we take advantage of having a light day to grab an extra hour of sleep. John has some scrambled and beans for breaky and Mary has a bite of fruit and poached egg while we chat with a pleasant couple from Nottingham, England. We mention that we have our own versions of Robin Hood in the States who steal from the rich and give to the poor while keeping 30% plus expenses. They’re called lawyers.

John is going to grab an hour to update posts but instead settles in with Matt our host to solve all of the problems of the hospitality world while Mary loads the car. Everybody has their job. Matt does redirect our route to Dunedin today to follow the southern coast for some dramatic sights.
We have several maps in front of us and still manage to be on the right route for about 12 minutes of our first three hours of driving. Not to worry because the best sights are still to come. As we pass Invercargill we lose our pavement, but strangely enough we are now on the right road. This, again, is pretty dramatic country with trees growing sideways from the wind coming directly from Antarctica and some old shoreline petrified forests. At about 2:00 we reach Slope Point, which is the southernmost point of the South Island of NZ, so only a couple off-shore islands separate us from the big ice. Last year on the north coast of Scotland we were the farthest north we have ever been, and we suspect that this is the farthest south we will ever be. We nibble on some fruit, chat with some sheep (one was lucky enough to get an apple core) and wave to the penguins that must be out there somewhere.

The seagull says to the penguin, "That’s funny, it looks just like you’re wearing a Tuxedo." The penguin says, "What makes you think I’m not?" (Garrison Keillor)

Our slow day gets us into Dunedin about 6:30 and Mary does a reamarkable job of getting us through town and directly to our B&B. We are up on a hill overlooking the town in an old mansion and, because they are a little light on guests this evening, our hosts put us into their big suite which has a huge sitting room with a bedroom and bath upstairs in a turret. As the grandchildren would say, "sweet!" We turned on the television and there is a game show on the Maori channel. The host is Mr."T" who was our host at the Maori Hangi in Lake Taupo last week. We now have bumped noses and foreheads with a NZ TV personality. We walk about a mile straight downhill into the city for a quick fish and chips for Mary and chicken pasta for John, neither of which will make our top ten list, and then catch a cab to get back up the hill. For $NZ6 we get the ride, and 50 suggestions about how to spend tomorrow. On this trip we have missed more than we have seen and that will certainly continue to be the case. We have a complimentary glass of wine to help us doze off and it works.

Again, a news free day.