Austrian Bed and Breakfast owner goes Scouting for new activities to do for the expected guests

Contrary to public opinion - Dunedin does have a decent amount of sunshine! Even Mamabear eventually agreed that I was right   ( a rare and treasured moment - not in being right - but Mamabear admitting as much that I was indeed rrrrrright) in reading the weather map - forecast and as such it dawned nice and clear. If somewhat cold.  I have to keep reminding myself that we are 400 km CLOSER to the south pole and practically the whole South Island does get exposed to the roaring 40's - which can mean - sunny and yet cold temps!! Ah well - better this then 6 degrees and rain!!  Next up - after the bun-fight in - oops for the shower and the usual crumbs in bed and listening to the radio for 10 minutes until the pre-paid internet usage run out - was - a quick if freezing stop over at the local St. Kilda Beach and the obligatory beach sample to take home.  We did miss out on that last time we have been there - so needed to complete this transaction.  Must go later and add to the website along with the photos and short description!!   Beaches we have been too :)   Not to mention the garlic bread blog. (  Old bear's garlic-bread-critique )
Interestingly enough it is for all practical purposes the same beach - along the same bay front - and yet it does have different grain structure from one end to the other.  Curious.   
So having blue skies - it was (yet again) a total NO-brainer and we drove up and eventually headed back inland - making a detour via the (for us) usual route - which Micky calmly remarked on "I can see why he likes it - no traffic and lots of scenery!!"
Eventually came out near the power station and at special request by the old shaken Bond gal we stopped over at Benmore Dam and yes - it was spilling some excess water.  Now this is a 300 plus meter gigantic water slide.  Actually I do hope that they are flat out and using said water for making electricity as well.  It has to be said this spilled water will get used another 3 times for making power before it reaches the Ocean.  This is shall we say a rather TAME demonstration.  If they open all four gates and open wide . . . . . . .  wohoooooooo

Imagine sliding down here.  You would have a short and most exciting thrill of your life - and then be dead. 
When all four gates are half or full open then this slide fills almost to the top of its walls - so you can imagine how this spills at the bottom!!  Thundering!!

At the top of the dam - some still water and in honour of Mr Gray from '50 shades of Gray' - I called this - '50 shades of Green'!! Wonder if this enlarges to a 90 x 90 cm print???

The whole point of this detour was to - yes you guessed it - get to a certain point - Lake Pukaki and
yes

wait for it . .

here it is . . . .

nearly there . . . . . .

B I N G O -- Mt Cook in all his glory.  Yes, it was a stunning Blue Dome Day (as Augie Auer used to say) and the 'cloud-piercer' missed his cloud to pierce! Just fabulous!!  Sooooo Mermaid - you remember - and Empress Sissi - as well as Cousin-soon-to-be-here   T H I S   is what awaits you!!  I made suitable arrangements with  Sir Blue Dome and he promised good weather for January / February

From there it is just a half jump over to the next Lake and it's famous church. Now the glass of bubbly is becoming a tradition and we would have drunk to that at Pukaki - except for still being buffet by the Frigidaire wind.  So it made sense to consume and contemplate in a location which is often a 3 degrees or so warmer - yes Lake Tekapo!  Prost!!  Mermaid / Sissi / Cousin-soon-to-be-here & Wilfried-why-ever-did-you-leave-NZ!!

The inside of the church - yet again I tried to snap a decent image and yet again I realize you need some back-lighting in order to see the interior AND the exterior.  Wonder if or better when I make a sizable donation if they will let me rig a light or two and lock the doors for half an hour . . . . .

Looking across the car-park with the door open and amazingly all tourists short term wandering away from subject - soooo naturally - snap!!
Just a teeny weeny off center for the Cross to see - ah well - next time.

From there it was another uneventful drive home.  After some 900 km I felt a wee bit drowsy and so asked mamabear if she wouldn’t mind and yes she obliged - only to spot no less then 5 police cars (some sneakily in mufti) patrolling the roads south from Tekapo.  She did drily comment it would not do for me to be driving 9ookm and *cough * not slowly and NOT get a ticket and she getting a ticket on the last 150km or so! However you be pleased to know we have a special Guardian Angel who has been protecting us from overzealous traffic-police and also providing us with a car-park wherever we are.  RIP Brother

Time to unpack and crash to bed  - then go to work so we can repeat this in January!!  Can't wait for the cuzzie to arrive

Oh and must skype soon - we may need to re-jig the travel itinerary :) 
Catch you later

Austrian Bed and Breakfast owner goes Scouting for new activities to do

Woke up - with still that satisfactory and somewhat please feeling - yes the rugby!!  History was made and it feels great.  So off course next year - we aim for competition win nr 7. There will probably never be another team like it.  Ever!! Just to lay the ground work we decided to see for ourselves the famous Dunders roofed stadium and the farmers market within.  Well the market proofed to be a disappointment and  not surprised that mamabear's sister did not want to join us for this wee trip!  The Stadium however was great.  Ended up playing photographer  - snapping a strapping almost hulking South African (who looked vaguely familiar . . . ) and also had to take one of Mamabear - who it has to be said  - was extremely proud of the sponsorship.  It must be a national deal - with Mitre 10 mega featuring big-time and and when the cameras show a penalty or try conversion - you cannot miss the big orange sign in the background.  So this Cantabrian did what any self respecting guy should and would do and staked a claim on this turf - OUR piece - OUR ground - OUR win - just like the Canterbury coach did in the Cake-Tin (Wellington Stadium) after the win yesterday!! He actually staked a flag!!  Wonder how long that stayed there!  hehehe
From there it was on towards the new-ish Chinese Garden! Now not 100% sure why or how - but somehow there is a link with China and the good folks over there decided to more or less donate a example of middle class living space.  I have to tell you - not half bad!  We are seriously considering buying some land in Whitianga and building our retirement home up there - so got plenty of ideas - and I do like this example - just need to win lotto 2 x over!!   http://www.dunedinchinesegarden.com/

The roof-tiles - 1000's and 1000's of them.  If you lay then end on end you have enough to get from Dunders to Christchurch - some 400km away.  The bottom ones are called 'drip-tiles'! they are designed to ensure that any water drips away from the house! Clever!! Why do we have leaky homes in NZ??? 'Cause we forgot to apply ancient Chinese wisdom!

On the inside there were walls and inside walls and outside walls and covered walkways with walls and some had clever windows. Kinda liked this as you can walk in the shade - or protected from the rain - and yet still be 'outside', and it gives different views depending where on the property you are.

Same spot - just looking in other direction towards the main entrance and balcony!

The whole thing is designed to invite areas of contemplation! I fear - if I live in something like this I would not get anything done, rather be contemplating all the jobs that NEED doing.  That would put my ying  seriously out of whack from my yang then! :) Must google this and see if I can get a floor plan!  The amount of labour expanded on this was phenomenal.  For example - 3 labourer' job was to HAND-lay the pebbles!!!

  From there it was on to the beach - saw these footprints which reminded me about a certain poem about God walking alongside you and after a while the prints left behind going from two to one - this is where God carries you!! Anyhow - this very recent and clear imprint was to good to miss.  I have to admit - it is NOT my paw-print.  Mine would be to big and furry . . . . and not that it is telling me that God is walking IN FRONT of me neither . . . .

Reason we went to this particular beach (St. Clair) was A - they had some new forshore development (that also recently got damaged in the storm surges) and B -  the former pier left behind these poles and I had seen a drawing in town that was inspired from here!  Pleased I got in the mirror reflections in-between the waves!!

Looking out into the sea. Kinda makes you feel like running along and diving in - EXCEPT it was close to freezing cold! I do know at least one mermaid AND a distant relative of Austrian Empress Sissi (and she does have her name :)  ) who would just dip their legs in here at minimum.  Can't understand the nuts who insist surfing in these waters - yet Josh Kronfeld (of rugby fame down here) insisted it was his best post match therapy! Guess the cold water acted like a giant ice pack on sore body mussels . . .

We needed to warm up - so headed back into town and parked the 70 horses and eventually found a cafe with light meals. Definitely a student cafe! Lots of young students slurping lattes  or eating croissants.  Felt again out of place.  If 50 makes me a old fuddy-duddy - they can keep it.  First up - need a new $1000 cellphone.  Hmmm there is a Ubuntu phone coming soon - may hang out for that - meanwhile - post lunch we met up with Mamabears sister and her partner and went into the Butterfly house - room.  Lots of different colours fluttering about- and never sitting still long enough for a decent portrait.  Someone should train them :)  Yeah right!  Anyhow - it was very warm in there - stark contrast to the chilly southerly out at the beach. Amongst the wildlife was this green little dude hanging on upside down no less.  Now not sure if he was hiding from all the flutters or he was camouflaged hoping for an unsuspecting butterfly offering him/herself for his supper! He certainly blended in perfectly and you would never know he was there!  Was thinking of a certain mermaid and her teeny wee princess and how she would have liked to be there and see the colours! Next time - mermaid - next time, we gonna make it longer!!


The two sisters shared some stories and jokes! No doubt this old fella was the butt of some!  meehh  don't worry me, I'm cool - oops hot in here!
Time to leave and go for dinner - not before Mamabear managed to grab 2 hours of post Bond-girl-party  beauty-snooze-time.  For myself - trying to catch up on all the online things! Seems no one is missing us - so that's great!
Out for Dinner in the Speights house - and no junior, no DB there either - this is after all Otago country!! 

Looking forward to catching some zzzz's and driving home via Tekapo.

 

Austrian Bed and Breakfast owner goes Scouting for new

 yawn
The bed was not as comfy as first thought.  WE have a new Bed and home and a super hard mattress (as my back needs a firm grip - hmm support).
Anywoooo
Breakfast as a strange affair. The place we booked had three beds in it - a double for me and mamabear and a single (in same room) for Junior.  It had three plates / bowls / saucers / cups / knifes-fork-spoons.  One Jug for boiling water and one 2slice toaster.
It did   n o t   however have any kitchen sink or any  other kitchen things you may need.  Clearly they were hoping that we order some fatty bacon something rather from the owners hotel next door.  So  visualize myself balancing a laptop / one hot cuppa tea and three slices of nuttella on my knees in bed.  Not even a chair to sit in!!
Breakfast done and the usual bodily cleanliness done - it was time to head of into blue yonder.  Met Mamabear's sister and dropped off the birthday prezzies - then kidnapped her - ooops offered a ride for her to pick up the important 50th cake and delivered both to the local party venue - the Golf club!! Noticed - but forgot to ask why the flags there flew half-mast?? Surly not in sympathy for the member who turned half a century old?!?!?! Hmmm must ask him about that.
From there we headed into separate directions.  Somewhere in between we had lunch in a local cafe too.
So old foggy here and his lovely female 'shaken' companion headed out to the Albatross colony. (this is were the scouting bit comes into play).
We wanted to see for ourselves these magnificent flying birds AND find out the costs / tours etc for when a certain cousin etc are visiting our shores later in the season! Anyhow - long drive out and just missed on the hourly tour - so had - yes - yet another afternoon meal!  hmm at this rate the anticipated weight-loss is off the plan for now!  4pm came and and so did the tour guide.

This bear - has new digi camera and used sport setting to full advantage - capturing the big bird in full flight!! Thank goodness for that.
60 images and 1 minute later . . . .


Part of the tour also encompasses a trip to an old underground bunker  and there we saw them - urm - doing what mother nature needs or wants them to do (which when we told Micky about he pulled yet another face - poor guy got a bit teased here).  At least these two birds had no idea that they were being watched - from less then 5 meters away!! 

Eventually it was time to head back towards Dunders and we saw in the distant horizon the building of a very dark and forbidding cloud - so wondered what would await us.  Well, mother nature has a habit of tossing up surprises and this was no less spectacular and very bright! So naturally had to stop and snap a picture.

Sadly did not find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, rather a decent shower followed this event!

Back to the Motel and collected the boy (who seemed to have a good time exploring the shops in Dunders and also bought himself a new pool-cue!
Before the party was due to start we needed a bite to eat - so on advise and recommendation from the locals decided to go Italian - Ettrusco.
Arrived and the first question was - "Do you have a booking?"  Urm - no sorry
Luckily for us they had ONE table left - so got seated right next to the Door - to not only enjoy a scrumptious truly authentic Italian meal - but also hear of dozens others been turned away ( 'cause they were full) and see enough young wannabe Bond-maidens trying to be seated.  One group of 4 did get in and they looked around 20-ish - so naturally one certain young bear got suddenly keen.  hihihi - they would have chewed him through, and then spat him out!!  One thing did become clear - we are indeed old fuddyduddies.  One of the possible future Bond girls decided she needed to  'do up'   her hair. However these modern gals - just whip out their $1000 phone and plug in a live video-cam application that reflects their image and lets them comb / powder / groom any facial part to whatever satisfactory state or however long the battery lasts - NO mirror no longer needed!!  I feel old now . . .  very old

Having been educated in the latest Bond toys - it was time to head of to the actual party.  Arrived dressed up up to much laughter and hilarity. Had asked previously if there were any 'free" Bond- girls attending and sadly (or luckily for some)  no - most of them were already spoken for (and also very much older then in their prime filming days).  The closest we got to was a couple or so Cougar-mum's and well - I'm no longer young enough for that line of work ^^ and funnily enough junior was not keen on that scenario either. 
Somehow we ended up back at the motel at a reasonable hour and crashed into the soft bed (having completed one of the undercover missions set by M!!)

n8 n8

Oh yeah - and despite the TV live streaming the event (which if I am watching - we would loose) our rugby Team did win the ITM cup for a record 6th consecutive time!! Way to go Canterbury


 

Austrian Bed and Breakfast owner goes Scouting

Nnaha

I know what you are thinking - Scouting - yes???
For the record - yes - I am involved in the hallowed youth movement - it keeps me on the alert and trim - (and not that this is the only reason for doing the voluntary work!!!)

However this is NOT what I trying to convey - rather - see,  we had a request to attend a certain 50th Birthday party - James Bond themed!! 

So who would pass up the opportunity to see some of the famous - good looking and highly skilled + attractive even sexy Bond girls???   Not me = of course!!  Even Mamabear went along in the spirit and sort of dressed up for the event.  She eventually decided on being a Martini!!  Her logic was that being from Christchurch is - "been shaken - not stirred"!! Micky decided on being an 'boring' EXTRA.  Myself  - one of the villains!! Yet I am getting ahead of myself.  First up - most unusual - we packed AFTER my work finished and also waited for junior to finish his work and so eventually had the ox-cart packed and ready to go at 4.45pm for a decent 4-5 hour trip south to Dunedin - often also called Dunders!!
Dinner was Burger king on the run some place in Timaru!  Yummy dessert!!
Anywoo the road was busy with the holiday traffic - and it took just a tad longer then desired - but magically ( or was it the fact by now it was getting very dark at night :)  :) the road virtually emptied after Oamaru - so only had to worry about the traffic cops pulling night duty (and any speeding Austrians over)  and any stray unsuspecting future road-kill!! Hmmm junior not impressed when I offered some roadkill for dinner - in lieu of Burger-king! Can't think why - the possum or rabbit would have been already tenderized!!  ^^
Anywoo - arrived safely enough in Dunders - found motel and checked in (super small size) and crashed for the night!! 
The scouting bit will come tomorrow . . . .