Dunedin and Christchurch

Sunday April 16

My parents and I woke up in Invercargill, got our luggage together and departed the city via Intercity bus. We rode for four hours and had a 30 minute mandatory driving break in a random town before arriving in Dunedin. I looked out the window as we were driving through Dunedin and exclaimed “I see Elina!” Here we were in a new city in the south island and I had spotted my sister!

It was not as surprising as it could have been because we were all well aware she was in Dunedin heading for the bus stop. She was coming to join us on our trip! She had arrived the day before and was now settled into our Air BNB. It was so nice to see Elina after these couple of months.

After putting our stuff down at our place, we ventured out into the town. Our first stop was a bagel store to grab lunch. Then we continued on to the University of Otago where we sat and ate our bagels. Fun fact: I was highly considering this university when I was deciding where in New Zealand to study so it was interesting to actually see it. It definitely has more of a campus feel than Victoria does and a gorgeous campus at that but I am very happy with my decision.

We continued on to the Dunedin Botanical gardens where we walked to the aviary and even talked to parrot named Sid!

The next location on our walking tour of Dunedin was an amusing one. Dunedin has the world’s steepest street so naturally, we had to climb it! I’ve never seen a tour bus visit a residential street before but sure enough, one was parked out front of the street. My mom, dad and I braved the hill. It’s so steep, I was getting a little scared on the way down. Photos don’t really do it justice. The hill sure put the steep walk back to my flat in perspective!

We wanted to go to the beach but the sun had other plans (setting) so we decided to call it a day. We took a taxi back to our house and my mom, Elina and I went to the New World grocery store to buy some food for the next few days. I got Elina some special fruits like Red Kiwi and Passionfruit to try.

We ordered dinner from a Turkish restaurant, Elina and I strolled around the street a bit and then went back to our place to eat. It is so cool to have my whole immediate family together on the other side of the world.

Monday April 17

Elina, my dad and I rose early and walked an hour to St. Clair beach. We ate our breakfast and relaxed on the sand. Then we did the hour walk back and prepared for the day’s adventures to see wildlife. Elina had a taxi driver the day before that she really liked so we hired him to take us to our Albatross tour on the tip of the Otago Peninsula. Along the way, the driver, let’s call him Monday, told us about the area and pointed out key locations to us.

At the Albatross center, we looked out at the stunning views before heading inside for our tour. The tour guide explained that most of us would be there just for the albatross tour but a few had signed up for an extended tour to learn about military operations. When the tour guide said it was the Shapiros staying for the military tour inside tunnels, I could hardly hold it together. I remember signing up for the tour that had the most content in it but military isn’t really our passion.

After an informational section, our guide took us to a viewing room where we looked out at the albatross. They only breed in New Zealand even though they live in a wide variety of places around the world.

After the albatross viewing, everyone left except us and one other family. It was time for our military tour. We had to go down into a tunnel and the guide showed us the guns. Here we were, on the Otago peninsula at an Albatross sanctuary being lectured about artillery in a tunnel underground. And the funniest part was that the guide thought we were very interested because we had signed up. It was hard for me not to laugh at this crazy situation.

We ate lunch, purchased some souvenirs and began our walk to Penguin Place. This is a penguin sanctuary where they help penguins who are recovering from injuries. That meant we could see the yellow-eyed penguins up close and personal. Our guide wasn’t very kind and kept loosing those of us on the slower side but we had a nice time and even spotted a wild penguin walking on the beach.

When the tour was over, we called Monday and he came and picked us up. On the way back, he drove us by some classic Dunedin sights like the widely acclaimed train station. Elina, my dad and I walked to a restaurant called Speights to pick up our dinners. On the way, we stopped at a gorgeous church.

We got chowders and fish and such for dinner. It was very delicious.

Tuesday April 18

The tough thing about this trip is how quickly we have to move from place to place. All of a sudden, it was time to say goodbye to Dunedin. We hopped in Monday’s taxi to the airport. This was my first time in my whole life flying without having to go through security! It was a short flight and we arrived in the biggest city and most religious sounding in the south island – Christchurch! After settling in at our motel and overcoming some booking confusion, we ventured out to get lunch.

Elina and my mom got sandwiches from a nice little cafe. My dad and I were going to walk ahead and try a cafe in the botanical gardens but it was pretty far so we ended up asking my mom to get us some sandwiches before she left their cafe. I pointed out netball courts to my family in the park. Netball is a popular women’s sport in New Zealand which uses a basketball net without the backboard.

We walked into the botanical gardens, took lots of photos and smelled lots of flowers.

We then ubered to the Christchurch Gondola and rode it up to see gorgeous jaw-dropping views of the city.

We would be leaving for our most rural destination yet tomorrow so my mom, Elina and I were dropped off by our Uber at a New World grocery store on the way home to buy food for our journey. Then, Elina and I ventured to a Christchurch Speights (yes it’s a chain and yes we love it) to pick up dinners. After organizing for our trip tomorrow, Elina and I went out to the city center, saw some classic sites and soaked in being in Christchurch.

We would return to Christchurch three days later after we ventured into the mountains. But that’s a story for another blog post (the next one).