The Great Dunedin Gorge-Fest

So I've been back in Dunedin for the past few days, just maxin' and relaxin' and waiting for my fancy back-up boots to come. As I may have mentioned earlier, Dunedin is, so far, my favorite "big" city in New Zealand. Of course, I only have Auckland, Christchurch, and the ferry terminal at Wellington to compare it to, but hey, take it for what it's worth.

I've been staying with Hanne since I've been here, and somehow we both decided to use my visit as an excuse to stuff ourselves silly. It's almost like I've been visiting my grandparents or relatives..."eat, eat...you must eat!" Anyways, we kicked things off with a visit to Thai Over, one of Dunedin's well known curry joints. I ordered pad thai, but they served it in an interesting way that I had never seen before. Basically, the noodles and spices were all the same, but they took the noodles and wrapped them in a thin egg omelette in lieu of having fried egg strips in the noodles. It tasted about the same as traditional pad thai, but I gotta give them points for originality. Afterwards, I ordered a cheap sundae for dessert that turned out to be a monstrous, four-scoop leviathan which I couldn't even bring myself to finish. Things were off to a good start.

The next day we drove to Port Chalmers, a hip artistic suburb of Dunedin, and then headed up to the Moeraki boulders, stopping at Palmerston along the way for some coffee. Of course, I had already seen the boulders, but since Hanne is so geologically inclined and she doesn't have a car, it was the least I could do to drive up there to take another look. For dinner, we cooked up a tasty batch of New Zealand's famous green mussels, boiled in a tangy sauce of white wine, garlic, onions, and red chiles. We also managed to scarf an entire loaf of bread between the two of us. Not sure how that happened.

The gluttony continued the next morning when I decided to whip up a traditional American breakfast: blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and hickory-smoked bacon. I have to say, it was a really nice reminder of the comforts of home. Memories of the camping trips of my youth(where my family most often made blueberry pancakes) made them taste even better. After breakfast, it was mostly a lazy day of running errands. We went down to the University of Otago computer lab, where I was able to crank out two blog posts...for free! Take that, internet cafes. I also managed to swing by the post office and grab my back-up boots, which will hopefully be able to see me through the rest of my NZ tramping activities. Later that night, Hanne cooked up a Norwegian specialty dish. I can't remember what it was called, but she said that it loosely translated to "lumpy soup." Sounds appetizing, huh? It was basically boiled milk with dumplings, served with cinnamon and sugar. Like most Norwegian dishes, it had a rather subdued color palette of white and brown. Ah, those Norwegians...not much for presentation, are they? Despite its lack of visual appeal, it tasted quite good. After dinner, we went down to the movie theater and saw The Aviator while dispatching a large popcorn, two cokes, and a bag of M&M's. See, I told you I was eating nonstop! I enjoyed the movie, too...look for it in an upcoming Universal Media Review installment!

Anyways, in an hour or so I'll be heading off on another road trip to Te Anau, on the other side of the island. I'll have a day or so to gear up for my Doubtful Sound kayak trip, which will finish up on Sunday. I probably won't post again until after I get back, so take care and stay tuned!