big south trip: day 2

Day 2

Dunedin

Because we are amazingly awesome and very self-disciplined, we got up on the second day of our trip and headed down the hill to go to church. It probably helped that we were a little bit familiar with SouthLife Church already, it being one of the ACTS Churches associated with our church in Christchurch, and we'd planned to meet Phil there as well. Being located on the campus of the University of Otago, the oldest university in New Zealand, the church has an energetic student feel, and we were lucky to be there to hear a special speaker, the university pastor from Planetshakers Church in Melbourne (which we visited during our Australia trip in May). Both of us were glad to have gone to church, though the rest of our day quickly slipped away afterwards, along with the lazy winter sun.

The highlight of our day was a beautiful drive along well-named Hilltop Road on the Otago Peninsula, which juts out into the sea from its western boundary in Dunedin, where we had hoped to see some yellow-eyed penguins on the march up from the sea in mid-afternoon. Or maybe they're marching down to the sea - I'm not really sure. Anyway, as you can guess, we didn't spot any, but we certainly put in some strenuous exercise time during the steep and sandy descent and, later, ascent. Though it's winter, there are still plenty of other tourists around, so our hopes for a quiet day in a more remote area were quickly dashed when we saw the half-dozen cars already parked when we pulled up in Sandfly Bay.

We returned to our hostel for a bit of a rest, as we had also squeezed a very interesting trip to the Otago Settlers Museum into our afternoon, before satisfying our dinnertime hunger at Velvet Burger at the recommendation of a friend. The cajun chicken burger was delicious, if a bit small, and it seemed like the kind of moody little place that it would be cool to be seen in :)

Thought I'd try a personal makeover when I spotted this cardboard cutout as part of a 60s exhibit at the Settlers Museum. Is it a good look for me?

-Rachel

Pictures:

1) Sandfly Bay

2) Our spacious, light-filled room at Hogwartz (with Ann in the foreground)