Dunedin and Penguins!

Dunedin gets a big thumbs up.  Don't know if it is a place we want to live (even the locals bring up the weather issue) but it is definitely a great spot, especially for a "city".  The population is about 120,000 with a university and some really neat old cathedrals scattered about.

 

St.Paul's Cathedral in the center of Dunedin

 Dunedin is set in a harbor/bay on some really steep hills.  5 minutes and you're out of town, which is a nice feature for those of us who tend to get a little claustrophobic even in nice cities... One of the streets, Baldwin Street, is claimed (Guiness Book of World Records) to be the world's steepest street.  We have been mountain biking on some trails just past it and it is funny to see the tour buses unloaded, with people wandering around staring at the street.  It is (for the record) really steep at 35%.

 

Baldwin Street at 35%- is it steeper up or down?!

 

The view from Derek and Kashi's office sucks- A joke only because it is one of the most beautiful train stations they get to look at every day.  The only downside for them are all the tourists' backs they have to look at every day who are taking pictures of the beautiful train station, leaning against their office window.

 

Treehugger. In her defense, it was a Redwood.

We have been fortunate to be house sitting for new friend Derek (who we met at the Alpine Epic race last week) and his family while they had to make an emergency trip to Australia.  The house has been quite a treat as we were needing and wanting a place to relax for a few days.  While it has been nice camping from one spot to the next, it brings us great pleasure to be in this lovely home with a lovely kitchen and a lovely fireplace and most importantly (after camping air mattresses) a lovely bed!  The home overlooks St.Clair, which was voted one of the top 50 surf spots in the world which doesn't mean that much to us (yet) aside from watching the beautiful breaks.  Just down the street, and almost inset into the ocean is a saltwater swimming pool.  We were expecting saltwater similar to what we used to experience at the Kennedy pool however, this was the real stuff! It is, literally, filtered, heated, ocean water!

 

View from our kitchen...kidding! Good aerial of Dunedin...

 

Tempting hot, fresh date scones are Everywhere!!

On Saturday, we were fortunate enough to go to Dunedin's Farmer's Market.  Now, carnivores hear us out on this one...it smelled like bacon!  Not only was there amazing produce (it is their high season) of all varieties, but there was bacon.  These folks know their bacon like no other.  Even the average grocery store has at least 5 brands of nitrate-free, preservative free, (-ate) free bacon in a variety of cuts.  It is leaner, lovelier, than one can imagine.  So we are walking around the market, smelling the bacon aroma, then the fresh coffee aromas, then the baker's and all their fresh delights and their aromas, and the real question was what were we going to have for breakfast?  Or, what weren't we going to have for breakfast?  We ended up having fresh crepes (we'll call them crepes for now because they were being made by a french woman but my Romanian ancestors will be proud that the rest of the time we call them clatitas).  She even had gluten-free crepes that she was making on a large (20-inch) cast iron crepe maker.  I got the cheese and egg version and Zeph got the ham and cheese version and we'll both testify now that they were indeed something to write home about!  Not even time to take a picture...Fantastically fresh and delicious.

My mum asked the other day if it feels as far south, or as close to Antarctica as we actually are, and the answer is, not really...except for the penguin signs and the summer wind that feels like California's winter wind.  New friend Kashi sent us to Sandfly Beach the other day, which we were hoping wasn't a dirty trick as sandflies can be ferocious!  But we set out for a picnic adventure to Sandfly Beach because he said it was a good spot to see the penguins come in.  We saw one penguin, which still makes our day and a handful of happy, napping, furry seals.  No pictures of the penguins yet as they are still too far away even for Zeph's zoom lense...We are thinking the Sandfly name comes from the 50mph winds blasting the sand down the valley onto the beach, giving us some awesome natural (much needed) exfoliation!

 

Z's Birthday celebration spilled over into March- he got a hall pass because of the race!

The wish in progress...funny lighting due to the fact it was in the tent!

We continue to meet unbelievably nice people here.  This makes missing our favorite people at home a smidgen easier...just a smidgen though.  We leave Dunedin tomorrow to head back for the mountains.  We have been hearing over and over about some trails in the Naseby Forrest, which is near Ranfurly, on our way toward Wanaka and Queenstown.  Queenstown is known for its tourist-trapped-ness and wild bungee jumping, jet boating, heli-skiing/biking, (don't worry folks, none of this for us as we are plenty excited with just exploring the mountain bike trails) escapades but we are most excited about the fun trails we keep hearing about.  We will be meeting up with some new and old friends in Wanaka, which sounds like a beautiful area, on a lake, in the middle of the mountains.  From there we will be making our way up the west coast, but until then, we will keep writing and keep taking pictures, and well eating for that matter.  Best to all and thanks for reading!