It's like Lord of the Rings!

If you have ever watched Flight of the Conchords, you may have noticed a facetious poster on Murray’s office wall that features a lovely photo of New Zealand landscape with the caption: New Zealand, It’s like Lord of the Rings.  As I have traveled and tramped in various places in NZ, I have overheard many a traveler gasp and claim, “wow, it’s like lord of the rings!”  Meanwhile, I made a point to not say those six words, knowing how cliché they are.  After all, before we came here and briefly after telling someone we were heading to New Zealand, they would inevitably state, “you know that’s where lord of the rings was filmed” or “I’ve heard it’s just like lord of the rings there.”  Then we went to the Matukituki Valley for a weekend of tramping and camping and there I was unable to contain myself as I exclaimed, this is like lord of the rings!  See for yourself…

A Photo Tour of Dunedin

Welcome to a photo tour of a few parts of Dunedin!  Dunedin is a very large city land wise and is made up of many diverse suburbs.  Population wise, Dunedin has about 100,000 people living here year round and about another 25,000 students who come for the academic year.  Here are some photos from St. Clair, the "inner city" as they call it here (also known as downtown), Maori Hill, and the Otago Peninsula.  

St. Clair beach looking south

St. Clair Beach looking north

ch-ch-ch-changes

When moving to a new place, there are inevitably changes or adaptations that occur in our behavior, language, and perspectives of everyday things.  Sometimes these changes are deliberate and quite consciously made.  For example, I now drive and ride my bike on the left hand side of the road, I use the expression “can I make you a cuppa?” when interacting with New Zealanders (most especially the elderly folks I work with), and I have decided hanging your washing out on a line is far superior to using a clothes dryer.  Other changes

Baaaaaaaaa!

This might be rather cliché, but I must have an entry devoted entirely to sheep.  Sheep abound in New Zealand, well at least in the places I’ve been to on the south island so far.  

Coffee

For years I have flirted with coffee.  At times I'm a committed connoisseur, other times I swear it off completely.  When we left Juneau, I decided to have a last hurrah with the hot and steamy beverage.  After all, we were embarking on a several week road trip USA (mainly to bring our dog, Kayan, to stay with friends in Colorado) and what’s a road trip in the states without coffee???  I would fully indulge myself and then planned to break free of my caffeine love affair once we got to New Zealand, because I assumed the hot beverage of choice would be tea.  WOW, was I wrong! 

Cappuccino, note the chocolate powder on top!

Travel

Nick spotted two sets of familiar shoes as we descend the stairs to baggage claim.  With each step our friends were revealed to us from toe to head.  Suddenly our tired bodies and minds, from 33 hours of travel, felt an overwhelming joy and slight mania at having arrived.  We exchanged hugs and some stories of our travels as we waited for our bags to take their turn around the carousel.  On our drive to M and J’s home fireworks exploded in the sky.  Apparently everyone was excited about our arrival.  Well, that and it was Guy Fox day. 

The Decision

As we made our way back into granite creek basin, a popular hiking trail in Juneau, M, J, and I talked about how lucky we were to have each other in our lives on a daily basis.  We also talked about where our lives would take us in the future.  M and J planned on returning to Dunedin [New Zealand] in a year and a half; Nick and I planned on moving to Portland [Oregon] at about the same time.  We fondly talked about how we would take