Week 14 Day 92 Dunedin, Otago NZ 45.8667° S, 170.5000° E
When I last left off, we were in Invercargill–land of fire drills and sobriety check points. Most of our time spent in Invercargill, was spent at their HUGE (for NZ standards) library. They had free WIFI and after being on the road from Milford most of the day it was important for Tom to get some work done. When the library closed at 7 we headed out to the coast to an area referred to as the bluff.
We weren’t quite sure what it was, but it sounded to me like a good place to park the car for the night. On the way out of town, we were stopped by a police barricade doing a 100% sobriety check….good thing we didn’t stop for a beer!
Tom passed the test with flying colors despite his lack of a driver’s license.–MI has dropped the ball multiple times in mailing him his replacement license. All he has is a photocopy of it. :/
The bluff actually turned out to be a great spot to park. High up on a hill, it offered a 360 view, most of which was coastal. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to enjoy the view too much because we had one of NZ’s infamous rain storms roll in shortly after we parked.
We woke up Saturday morning to a short sun break, long enough for us to walk to the top of the bluff and take the first picture of this post. Post photo opp, we headed back into town to do some work before heading into the Catlin region to do some exploring.
Tom was cranking away like crazy being super productive when the fire alarm sounded around 12. Apparently the library has random fire drills where the fire department comes and all.
Being kicked out of our office, we decided it was time to get out of this town. Stopping on the way out at the Countdown market to load up on groceries, gas, and oil (apparently Getzyas go through oil faster than gas…:/) we were soon on our way to the Catlins.
Our first stop was in Fortrose on the coast at a small picnic area for brunch!
The next stop was the Waipapa Lighthouse, also home to a small Seal Colony. Tom and I have become so spoiled by spotting seals now that we didn’t even head out to the beach, but rather got right back on the road to the next location.
The next spot we hit was Cario Bay, the most Southern point of New Zealand!
We were so excited to see this location I did a headstand!
Hopping back in our car, we continued down the road hitting NZ’s Niagara Falls next!
NZ’s Niagara Falls doesn’t quite compare to the real one…at least I would hope it doesn’t. I haven’t actually seen it in person yet, so maybe it does, but that would be a huge disappointment.
Luckily not much further down the road was McLean Falls.
After seeing Niagara falls, we weren’t quite sure if this waterfall would be worth the 4km drive down the gravel road nor the potential poison we faced.
When we arrived though we pleasantly surprised this location was definitely worth the walk!
The falls themselves were beautiful as well as the trail leading to them.
The cool thing about these falls were the way the stone underneath the falls created “steps” for the water to run down. The mossy green all around created a very peaceful environment. We stayed much longer than we do most locations playing around the falls, but finally it was time to move on.
The next location was Matai Falls. One walk with 2 falls!
The first a little smaller, but with soft trickles and the same stone step/mossy effect as Mclean Falls.
The second of the two falls was a little bigger. We didn’t stay long because the biting sand flys were starting to pick up and we had one more waterfall to hit for the day.
The last waterfall of the day was Purakaunui Falls.
Purakaunui Falls was probably the grandest of the waterfalls we saw for the day, but Mclean Falls was my favorite because it had the best trail and coolest environment.
After seeing Purakaunui Falls we headed to find a spot to camp for the night.
Seeing the sign for Jack’s Blowhole, we headed down another gravel road towards Jack’s Bay.
Fitting perfect with our travel, there were no signs around Jack’s Bay that said no overnight parking so we decided to stay there for the night.
The nice thing about NZ this time of year is the sun stays out forever. We arrived around 7:45 but knowing we still had over an hour of sunlight left, we set off on the trail towards Jack’s Blowhole.
The trail itself to Jack’s Blowhole is pretty cool.
First you walk down through a walkway of trees that have grown together over the path.
Then the path leads you through fields of sheep.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but Sheep are funny animals.
When they see you coming, they like to stop and just stare at you as you go by. It’s pretty weird to walk by a line of sheep all standing in formation watching you.
After you pass through the sheep fields, you walk along a huge cliff for about 500m more before you arrive at the Blowhole.
We unfortunately visited Jack’s Blowhole at low tide so we didn’t see it erupt, but the hole itself was impressive and the view along the walk was spectacular enough.
Settling in for the night, we made some a sausage, egg, and chili bean feast to refuel after all our walks for the day.
Each walk may not seem far, but by the end of the day we had walked a total of 8 miles!
We watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind and fell asleep by the bay.
In the morning we woke up with the expectations of going back to Jack’s Blowhole if it was high tide..but it wasn’t so we continued on our way. 
Our first stop being Nugget Point, home to a lighthouse and a penguin colony.
The penguins at this colony unfortunately had already gone out to sea, but we’ll hopefully see more later this week.
Nugget point itself was actually super cool!
The view was gorgeous and you could walk right up to the lighthouse!
After Nugget Point we continued on our way quickly!
The next stop was Dunedin!!!!–The Promise Land! Wonderful Dunedin!!
We got spoiled in Wellington and we were both dying for a shower, a bed, and just a place to call home for a bit after being in the car for 2 weeks!
Calling Dunedin the promised land was probably a little extreme, but we soon found out it is the land of beautiful old churches.
When we got into town, we headed straight for the Bikram studio.
Parking the car, I politely introduced myself and made the proper amount of conversation without being rude before running straight to the shower!!
I would like to say we got right out and explored the city on Sunday, but we didn’t…So happy to be out of the car and have a place to call our own, Tom and I chilled all day in our little studio room.
I did leave the room to practice at 4 and then buy some groceries, but otherwise Sunday was completely devoted to lying on our foton playing online decompressing
Monday work began.
Tom and I both took class at 9:30, walked to the laundry mat to do our way overdue laundry, and I taught class at 4.
Between class and laundry, Tom has been typing away hustling to finish up his latest book, The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing, for the release date next week!
Monday night, we cooked up some dinner and settled in pretty early to get to sleep.
Tuesday morning was an early day.
I taught the 6:30am and Tom woke up with me to practice before a long day of typing away.
I had my sweat session at 9:30.
Following yoga, I stole Tom away from his work for a quick all you can eat lunch at Great Taste, a Chinese/Japanese/Also serves Spaghetti and Nachos buffet.
Following lunch it was time for me to explore the city.
I left Tommy hard at work and set out on foot determined to see all of Dunedin.
23,000 steps later I achieved my goal!
The yoga studio is located in the middle of the town, so I first set out South East checking out the octagon (the middle of town), the Chinese Garden (which you have to pay for so I didn’t go in), and Queens Garden (a small block of grass with one giant obelisk).
The South/East side of town wasn’t too amazing, but the North/West side made up for it.
Walking up the hill into the Suburbs, the first thing I found was an amazing view of the city, bay, and ocean.
The next stop was the Dunedin Botanical Gardens.
The Botanical Gardens is pretty huge. 28 Hectares to be exact. I’m not quite sure how big a hectare is, but google conversions was good enough to tell me 1 hectare = 2.47 acres.
The Botanical Gardens have a large rose garden, as well as other large floral sections. In all the garden contains 6,800 plant species!
I walked all around the gardens, heading back to the studio via The University of Otago.
The University of Otago isn’t the largest campus, but they do have beautiful old rock buildings and lots of lush green trees and plants all over!
When I got back to the studio, I convinced Tommy to take a much deserved break!
We headed out to the Otago Penisula in search of Albatross and Penguins.
Once again, the penguins eluded us, but we did see the Albatross flying around!
Wednesday we both went to work, Tommy on his book and I to yoga!
I taught the 9:30am and 6pm classes, taking the 12pm Yin class and 4pm Bikram Class.
Tom joined me for the mid day Yin class, but other than that he’s been grinding away! Crunch Time!
Wednesday night he finally called it quits at 10:30 to meet up with my friend from Seattle Steve!
Steve and his friend Kevin are also traveling for a year and our paths have crossed here in NZ!!
We stayed up far too late catching up with Steve and Kevin, making our 5:45 wake up in time for me to teach the 6:30 and Tom to get to work a little difficult.
Despite the lack of sleep, Thursday was a great day.
Tom got a lot of time to work, and I spent the majority of the day in the yoga room!
I taught 6:30, took 9:30, and then did advanced at noon.
After finishing yoga, I shower up quickly and made Tom and I lunch before meeting up with a Resistance Member, Michelle.
Michelle was awesome to show us around Dunedin, taking us to Dunedin’s hidden gem Tunnel Beach.
Tunnel Beach was gorgeous!
The best part was the tunnel walkway that you take to get from the cliffs down to the beach.
Once we got down to the beach, we saw our first Sea Lion! He was just sitting on the beach chilling by himself.
Apparently, this is a really small Sea Lion, but he seemed big to us!
After chilling at the beach, Michelle took us a to a local brewery that was actually very affordable!
At Mcduff’s, you can get a rigger for under $10!–Crazy cheap for NZ standards!
Thank you so much Michelle for showing us around Dunedin!!
We spent the rest of the evening hanging out with Steve and Kevin.
We didn’t do anything too exciting, (mostly because I was exhausted from lack of sleep and the time in the yoga room!) but it was still fun to chill with old friends!
I hope you all are having a good week at home!
Happy to Birthday next week to Ellie and Bill!
We miss you all and will especially miss you next week for Thanksgiving!
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