2Kg burger – free if you finish it

Woke up without Internet access, again.

In New Zealand apparently 1Gb data is deemed luxorious and more than enough for a day with two adults. I mean what could possibly go wrong with cloud backups of photos, regular backups of phones, updates to apps downloaded over wifi etc? In Twizel some time ago, we got 50Mb vouchers valid for one hour. I guess Spotify and Netflix aren’t popular around here…

Anwho, it was already pouring down rain – a good day for travel and driving north towards Christchurch to meet up with parents again.

We drove off, and took a detour to Geraldine for breakfast and Internet at a cafe where three young men did their third attempt of eating a supersize burger each. They did not make it this time either but gave it a good try.

While sipping chai’s we combined two important tasks, having Juni crawling herself tired for the remaining drive and sorting out cars for the rest of the trip. The latter turned out to a bit of a jig-saw-puzzle since it was not possible to extend the ones we had now, it ended up with a shared van “El Cheapo” – what could possibly go wrong – to Wellington and then there switch to two separate cars “Travella” which ought to be a bit larger than the one we’ve had so far.

My parents recommended a small cheese factory/shop, Talbot Forest Cheese, which they had visited in Geraldine and it was just a few minutes away so we stopped by for tastings and ended up driving towards Christchurch with more cheese than we likely can eat ourselves before leaving New Zealand…

Overall the timing of sleep with Juni quite well, we almost got to Christchurch before some complaining. Well there we checked in at the motel the parents found, had some Japanese takeaway (Zenbu), did a bit of laundry and chilled.

Metallic Mice for breakfast company

After checking out (but having late check-out for the car) we strolled around in Dunedin while the weather was good. We picked up some baby socks and a sun-hat for Juni, and had breakfast/lunch at Ironic café – which was as hipster as the name indicates.

Dunedin Trainstation – looking pretty Harry Potterish to me…

This guy reminded me of a painting in Oslo

After strolling around in the city centre for a few hours we picked up the car and drove out to the peninsula, more specifically to Larnach Castle and gardens. We might be able to time it just right with finishing the gardening tour while weather was good.

Symmetry above chlorine

The gardens appealed to your’s truly’s sense for symmetry and I’d guess it required a team of people to work continuously with the gardens to keep them as they were. Mona of course loved the whole garden and in hindsight this may set some unrealistic expectations of future dwellings.

Just as we finished the gardens the rain started – perfect timing for once, we headed into the actual castle and learned about the original inhabitants and the later (and on-going) restoration project. It was quite a candid and dark backstory which included revolts due to cruel treatment (which failed), spoiled children, and ended with gunshot suicide for the original owner after strong rumors of his third wife having an affair with his eldest son. Not sure what moral there is to the story but the castle had been indeed lovely restored.

We figured that since we were on the peninsula now, why not head out to the Albatross Centre at the very end since we likely won’t get back any time soon? Said and done, a curvy road with a generous dm or two of land outside the lane before sea with no rails. Half an hour later we were there, not many cars and on the door to the center a paper note saying they were closed for today. I look forward to when this type of information is handled in a way Google et al get it continuously, now we did check up in advance but the information was outdated. Am I supposed to call to a landline like an animal? Bah, at least I could get a few scenic shots but no Albatrosses for me this time.

As the rain kept on and even got worse, we started driving north until Juni woke up and ended up having fast food at, yes I’m not proud but it did happen, McDonalds. Meat should not be that cheap, and the deviousness of having a playground for children made even more sense now.

We kept driving in the pouring rain onwards to Timaru where we had a motel to extend their check-in until we got there – 22:00 is apparently very late for a check-in and we were quite tired after a long day so went to bed quickly.

We had another nice and slow breakfast, and really hesitated to leave Lake Hawea but decided we wanted to head for Dunedin in the south by the coast so off we went.

Marshmallow – meet chocolate

On the way to Dunedin we stopped in Roxburgh for a fika with visiting a gallery and allowing Juni to crawl around for some time. Roxburgh was a quaint little town, free bathrooms with almost Japanese level of automation – I for one welcome our AI overlords by the way.

Art opposite public toilets. Cybermen goes American Gothic?

We kept driving through small populated areas which seemed like a mix of previous gold-rush cities and hipsters coming back and finally reached Dunedin, which is Scottish Gaelic for Edinburg. We checked in at Wains Hotel which was centrally located, and as usual more posh entry than actual rooms. After dumping our gear we headed off for dinner and took advice from Tripadvisor as usual, Etrusco at the Savoy was nearby and highly-ranked so Italian it was.

This restaurant is something I really can recommend, great food, good selection of wines and a good and friendly service. We timed Juni somewhat unfortunate so she wanted to play rather than chill in her stroller as we ate to our dismay, this is when the owner Megan introduced herself and asked if she could walk around with Juni while we ate. Seemed like a win-win-wine for us.

The struggle is real

As Juni settled down and we (!) had our desserts it struck me that enduring life’s hardships is easier with a good cognac.