I feel Dunedin...Dunedin for spedin.

That horrible pun only makes sense if you know how to pronounce the name of the city I've been staying in for the past several days: Dunedin (pronounced duh-NEE-din). I've been having a really great time here. The town has a palpable Scottish influence that you notice everywhere from the architecture (neo-Gothic, often inspired by the buildings of Edinburgh) to the local accents (a slight Scottish "burr"). The weather has been great except for today, which is okay since I was planning on running errands today anyways.

Things got off to a rocky start, though, both literally and figuratively! On Friday, I drove towards Dunedin from Oamaru, taking a brief stop along SH1 to see the Moeraki boulders (pictures to come). These are basically a group of giant stone spheres, some up to 2 meters in diameter, sitting on the beach. It looks like somebody must have carved them and dumped them into the surf, but they were actually naturally formed. I'm no geologist so I won't even try to fully explain how they were formed, but it had something to do with mineral deposits attracting various sediments (forming the spheres) and then the sea eroding the cliffs where they were buried, causing them to fall onto the beach. Anyways, once I got into Dunedin, I found out that the hostel I had booked (called Hogwartz, although there was nothing Harry Potter-ish about it) had bungled my reservation. So they sent me to another hostel up the street, the Elm Lodge, which turned out to be fine.

At the Elm Lodge, I met Hanne, a geology student from Norway who had come to Dunedin to pursue her master's at the University of Otago (NZ's largest university). She was staying at the Elm Lodge while she searched for a flat to rent in the area. We chatted for a few hours about various things...she was surprised to learn about Minnesota's ties to Norway and thought it was funny that we were so enthusiastic about lefse and, in some rare cases, Lutefisk (she was a fan of neither). We went out for dinner later that night where she had sushi for the first time. For some reason, I seem to have adopted the role of sushi ambassador as of late.

On Saturday I went back to Hogwartz and booked two nights there. I spent the day watching a concert featuring Tongan music in the Octagon (Dunedin's city center), visiting the Dunedin Art Gallery, and having lunch/reading/relaxing in the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. The art gallery had a special exhibition of roughly 50 photographs of 90's-era Tokyo youths dressed in garish, avant-garde, home-made clothes. The exhibition was called "Fruits," ostensibly because the style of dress was fresh and colorful, but I had other connotations in mind.

I woke up a little early on Sunday morning to have a relaxed breakfast and do some laundry. I was heading out the back door with all my dirty clothes when who should I run into but Hanne! Turns out that Hogwartz rented flats in the house and she had chosen one of them. She was trying to fill the tires of the bike that the Hogwartz staff had lent her, but it seemed that one of the valves was broken, preventing the tire from taking on air. She had been hoping to bike out to the Otago peninsula, and since I didn't have any plans for the day, we decided to drive out there together.

We visited a smaller garden, which was sort of a waste of time as it was nowhere as good as the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. Then we went to explore Larnach Castle, and ostentatious castle/chalet (NZ's only) built by Dunedin enterpreneur/politician William Larnach in the mid-late 1800's. The place had some cool history, and it was interesting to see how Otago's high society lived 150 years ago. Finally, we went to hike some short tracks on the peninsula. A short loop track brought us (via sheep-shit-covered trails) to geological points of interest with dramatic names such as "Lover's Leap" and "The Chasm" (again, photos forthcoming). Although it was cloudy, the views from the lookout points were beautiful. Our last track was little more than a sandy path out to Allen's Beach, but the beach itself was gorgeous. White sand, clear water, and big waves. Somehow Hanne convinced me to go swimming with her in the surf which was, as they say, "cold as." Once we had our fill of the chilly water (didn't take long), we went back to the beach and basked on a volcanic boulder to dry off.

When we got back to Hogwartz, we treated ourselves to a spaghetti feast which, to our delight, only cost us $6 NZ apiece. I spent the rest of the night reading and relaxing in the hostel. I figured that my grandma (on my mom's side) would be pleased as punch to learn that I had spent the day hanging out with a Norwegian, so Grandma, if you're reading this, this post's for you.

Which brings me to today. Since I am apparently not very good at booking hostel rooms far enough in advance, I had to move back to the Elm Lodge this morning, which is alright by me. It's kind of drizzly outside, which makes it a good day for doing errands and getting other necessary business out of the way. Tomorrow I am venturing into the Catlins coast region, which is the stretch of coast between Dunedin and Invercargill on the South Island. Supposedly there is some beautiful scenery to be taken in around there. I will probably spend a few days in the Catlins before I head into Invercargill, and then (hopefully) on to Stewart Island. I'll post pictures of my Dunedin exploits as soon as I get a chance.