Yep, me again. . . . . Made it to New Zealand again. . . . Got the flight early Monday and picked my car up in Christchurch and hit the road straight away and headed south towards Timaru, my first stop. . . .

I got to the hostel a really cold, smelly place, but was tired so after a quick look around the town and a trip to the shops I just chilled out for the night, had a few beers and had a restless night, checking the score on Derby at Wembley!

In the morning I headed off towards Dunedin, but stopped at a few places of interest on the way. . . .  One of which was Moeraki, famous for it's boulders. . . . Yeah. . . . ? No on the beach and in the surf are these naturally formed spheres with honeycomb type centers, very weird, but worth the walk to see. . . . I finally got to Dunedin, my home for the next 2 night and found the place where I was staying. . . . . Hogwartz! And yeah the place is a bit like something out of Harry Potter. . . To be fair the whole city is. . . . ! It has some great old stone architecture and a bit of character about the place. . . !

So, once I got settled in at Hogwartz, I decided to have a mozy round the city and ended up taking in a film at the movies. I watched the Zodiac, which was a good film based on a true story! I then headed back to the hostel and chilled out for the evening with a bit of food and a few beers. I watched another movies at the hostel with a few others (The 12 Monkey with Bruce Willis). I got up earlyish, had some breaky and headed out exploring the peninsula for the local walks and wildlife, etc.

The drive was great, I headed to the furthest point, some 35km out to Taiaroa Head where you can spot albatross, but the walks here weren't that good so doubled back and headed to the other side of the peninsula. I did a few walks here and it was great having nobody around. I then did a really steep incline to one of the highest mounts in the area followed by a visit to the local castle grounds. There were some fantastic views!

Next I headed to a Sandfly Bay, where you can spot penguins. I walked down this long path and down some very steep sand dunes, this was great fun, but I was not looking forward to going back. I had to walk the full length of the beach down the other end to some hide out huts. . . . . I passed several large sea lions on the way, just chilling out on the beach, they didn't seemed to bothered by me! When I gt to the hut there was a Dutch guy there, we chatted for a bit and watched for the penguins. . . . 2 girls also turned up and lent us there binoculars for a better view. . . . . Guess how many we saw. . . Go on guess. . . . . No, not zero. . . . 3, yes 3 bloody penguins from a distance too. . . . . . The walk back was definitely not looking so good now!

Anyway, the Dutch guy told me he was supposed to get his bike back to Dunedin for 6pm, and it was already way past 5pm, so I offered him a lift in the car, which he was very grateful of. . . . The only problem was the big walk back, so we headed off as it was dropping dark pretty quick and got to the killer part.. . . . . The sand dunes. Now I am not kidding you, it was nearly vertical, my legs were nearly dead afterwards, but I managed it, nearly bringing up the soup I had for lunch in the process! We got back to the car and chucked his bike in the back and headed to the city. . . . We got there about 6.10pm, but there were still people there, so all was good. . . . There guy 'Herman' was very pleased and thanked me! We parted company and wished each other well and I headed back to base. . .

I parked up, then called the Speights Brewery about their evening tour and was able to get of the last tour of the day at 7pm. I had planned a jam packed day and was achieving my objective. The tour was good and very informative, the tour guide was an old guy with lots of passion about his work, nice guy though. . . . . The tour was your usual brewery tour (sorry, I have done a few - namely Guinness (Obviously), Dublin, Ireland - Pilsner Arquelle, Prague, Czech Republic and the world famous Marstons, Burton on Trent, England). Yeah, good tour with a few different touches. The beer tasting at the end was good, however I got the taste and had a few. . . . .Followed by a few pints next door at the local pub and a bite to eat. Well, not quite a bite to eat, more a monster portion. . . . So after that I was done in. . . . I headed home and here I am typing away. . .

Right, going to bed now. . . . . Off in the morning down the Catlins coastline for loads more walks and site. . . . Will let you know how I get on. Bye for now people. . . . .