Back To Auckland

We got back from Dunedin to Auckland yesterday and to the entire purpose of our trip. Caleb's dad was at Terry's place along with the rest of the family and needless to say, the kid was over the moon to see his da, especially after me busting his chops the last fortnight I expect. So as myself and Cathy left the house without child, the dreadful feeling of absence when you lose a member of the team descended, giving us time to contemplate and review before figuring out what to actually do with ourselves.

Dunedin was a great old town in the end. The comparisons between it and Edinburgh and indeed, Cork (big college towns, same population, hilly, good pubs, iffy weather) left me with the same vaguely disturbing feeling that we couldn't possibly be on the other side of the world because the whole trip feels like a trip over to England or Northern Ireland or something. It's bizarre. One significant difference however is that we haven't had any major earthquakes destroy the major city in our region.

The butterfly exhibition in Otago museum in Dunedin.

The destruction of Christchurch hangs over everything in the South. We visited the Speights brewery and found out they lost a third of their entire company that day. The museums and larger public meeting places have screens rolling video of people trying to restore their lives. We met friends of Cathys that simply couldn't bring themselves to go back there, retirees in their eighties moving away, and heard stories of people praying their houses would be condemneded so they could get some money and move away to another more stable part of the country. And that's the underlying reality I'm afraid. People are just getting out and the city is dying. Already a third of the population have left, and though there are plenty of diehards holding onto and rebuilding their town, it will never again be the city it once was. Tragic.

The Speights brewery. I bought the t-shirt.

Fifty grands worth of mirror. It's about right feet wide. Don't make them like they used to.

Baldwin Street. Apparently the steepest in the southern hemisphere. I invoke Patrick's Hill as a challenger to the world record.

This picture refuses to load in landscape. Anyway, I had nothing to do with this. I just ended up with seriously good (cold) pizza and a crate of beer in the back of the car by way of gift and accident. It is a nice place here.


As usual, time was way too short in Dunedin, but we did get to a few touristy things. The Otago museum was excellent, couldn't understand our guide in the brewery which was fine cos there were samples, Cadburys factory was a bit shit really but the main highlights were the people. Caleb's great gran, Calebs grandfather, old neighbours and friends of Cathys. All excellent folk. After a few days we really did feel at home and leaving was a bit of a wrench, but tin can 1 had to be deposited at the airport so we could get new blue tin can 2 for our last week in Auckland. Myself and Cathy did fine without the boy in the end. Had a nice dinner, couple of pints and watched the new Mission Impossible at the local IMAX, which is a truly awesome cinema experience and made me very happy.