Penguins and snow and a wee bit of naked rugby

I woke up this morning to find this....

It's a mixture of hail and snow, if you can't tell...

Now that I am snuggled up in my fleece jacket with a cup of hot tea and some avocado on toast, I am ready to tell you about my adventures of this past week. I begin by saying, Harry Potter is over. Let me take you back to last Saturday, when my morning started with a noon showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. It was my first time at the movie theatre in New Zealand and my first time I ate ice cream in this country. The combination of movie plus delicious vanilla and raspberry ice cream was epic. To make things even better, my friend Grace, her two friends and I went out for sushi afterwards. The place we went to is called Savoury Japan, and the food there is delicious and cheap. That is something you don't hear me say often, since everything here is so expensive, but Savoury Japan sushi was well priced and tasty. I had a salmon avocado roll and a salmon avocado rice ball. I am as much a salmon enthusiast as an avocado enthusiast and the combination is grand. I did not realize exactly how much food I was getting and could not finish the rice ball, but I ate all the fish and avocado that was inside. While we are on the topic of sushi, I would also like to point out that much of the sushi here is made with chicken. Kat, the kiwihost in flat 5 (I am in 3) told us earlier that sushi was made with chicken because there isn't much fish around. I found this statement a little odd because New Zealand is an island surrounded entirely by ocean and only ocean. But after some thought, we realized that the right fishes probably don't live around here. Anyways, I have stuck to my salmon avocado combination since it is the same price as the ones with chicken. 

The next day, after stopping by the farmers market, Tucker, Sophie, Fredric, Grace and I went to Tunnel Beach. Tucker, Fredric, and Grace are flat mates and they live in flat 5 with Kat. Sophie is one of Julia's flat mates and lives on Leith Street, which is quite close to us, less than 10 minutes away. We took an early bus out to Corstorphine and walked the rest of the way to the beach. On the way, we stopped at a horse farm and fed the horses some grass that we pulled from the ground. Since the horses were a bit far away, Tucker and I whistled and waved grass and a carrot to beckon them. They came, we fed them grass, but not the carrot as it was Sophie's snack. 

As we continued to walk we also saw cows, sheep, and llamas. We finally reached a path that would lead us down to the beach. The path weaved through the hills that were laden with yellow flowers. The water was almost underneath you and you could see the waves splash onto the rocks. The path was not very steep, but was very muddy. Wearing jeans and my Converses was not my brightest idea, and I slipped many times on the way down (and on the way back up).

Some sheep we saw. They saw us walk towards them so they started to run, so we got a bunch of butts

The beginning of the path

After slippin n' slidin for about 25 minutes, we reached Tunnel Beach. Upon arrival we had to climb down a dark wet tunnel to reach the sandy part of the beach. On the other end of the tunnel there were a bunch of slippery and mossy rocks. My jeans and Converses were not helping me, but I managed to make it to the sandy part without getting too mossy. The beach itself is surround by huge rock structures and cliffs, putting the beach in the shade. The tide was relatively high when we arrived so there was a lot of running from the waves.

One of the rock structures/cliffs

Me and Fredric on the big rock

After a few hours, we were on our way back. As usual, the weather changed and it began to rain. That night was our first flat dinner where Kinga and I made burgers. We had a pretty quiet night in, ate dinner, and watched Shawshank Redemption.

Monday and Tuesday were relatively quiet nights here at The Lofts (my flats name). Monday night was my usual baking experiment night where I made carrot cake. I would say that the cake was pretty successful despite the middle being under cooked and the top being burnt. Tuesday night we watched Toy Story 3 and I managed to not cry. And on Wednesday night there was an Under the Sea themed party, where most people were not dressed up, except for the few fishes and lobsters that walked in. I also went to the grocery store and found this:

I kid you not. I miss Trader Joe's

Anyways, I went on the Speight's Brewery tour on Thursday with Julia and my flat mate Jose. The tour was about an hour and a half, and our guide told us about the history and current workings of Speight's. He also showed us some silly videos that were basically men riding horses and drinking beer. The Speight's Brewery is still working today, in their original building, which is about a 35 minute walk from campus. 

A lot of kegs

The guide showed us the different barrels that were used in the earlier days and how they were made. The lengthy process included wood being scooped out from the inside. He mentioned that the workers back in the day would get a size 1 barrel of beer every so often (per day or per week?) while they worked and they could take it home if they did not finish drinking it. They found out years later that the workers would dig out more wood from the inside of their barrels so that more beer could be stored. It is estimated that each worker got about a half gallon more per barrel because of this. 

After about an hour, they took us to a room where we got to sample the beer. I am not a fan of beer, but the different types I tried were not terrible. They had run out of apple cider and Julia and I were rather bummed, so after the tour we went next door to try some. Julia and I shared a cup, and of course, the apple cider one tasted better than the other five we tried during tour. I was also not carded, which was surprising, as I typically look like i'm 15. 

After our apple cider endeavor, we returned to Julia's flat, only after introducing her to Savoury Japan's rice balls on the way. We sat at her flat for a while, and waited for her flatmate Victoria to come home so we could go out. We went in search of a dance party, but soon realized that Dunedin night life does not begin at 10pm. We dwaddled a bit, went into mostly empty bars (because it was only 10pm) and eventually ended up at one where there was live music by these boys who looked like they were in high school. It was pretty decent and we stayed until a bit past 11, and by that time, there were a few people dancing at what I believe is called, Metro. Metro is an interesting place. The entrance has torches, you walk in and it looks kind of like a restaurant/bar hybrid that shows TV shows about fishing and sharks. We went downstairs and there were some other people and more dance-able music. 

Friday was another exciting day that started with my food science class (my favorite, so far) and then a naked rugby game. Naked rugby is exactly what it sounds like. One team was entirely naked, the other team wore towels and blue and orange flower leis. The game seemed to go well but I couldn't really follow what was going on and don't know which team won. It sort of seemed like a bunch of naked people running around and falling into piles for an hour. A naked player did manage to run into me, and another into this woman's tripod who was standing next to me. Here is the toweled team doing the Haka, a traditional Maori dance. I would show you pictures of the opposing team and the game in action, but I can't for obvious reasons. 

After my naked rugby experience, I walked into town to go see the Chinese Gardens. The garden is near the Octagon, the center of town, and was designed to be a late Ming/ early Qing Dynasty scholar's garden. Here are some pictures:

Later that night, a group of us went to watch the All Blacks (New Zealand's rugby team) play Fiji. New Zealand won, 60 to 14. Rugby is really big here, and they start really early. I often see little boys, probably no more than 8 or 9 years old practicing on the nearby field. Anyways, it was a good game, and I could follow it more easily because there was an actual field, and a score board. A lot of people went out after the game, but I headed back to my flat to do some laundry and to get some sleep because I was waking up early the next morning to see the penguins. 

That brings me to the penguins. Our original plan was to catch a bus at 8:50 in the morning, go to Larnach Castle and then walk to the Penguin Place. Turns out, at 8:50 in the morning, that the bus does not go to Larnach Castle, but could drop us off at the bottom of a 4km ice hill. Furthermore, the walk from Larnach Castle to the Penguin Place is about 3.5 hours. But, despite this major hiccup of ours, our day turned out quiet well. Here is what happened in our successful second attempt. 

At around 9:00AM Malori, Grace, and I went to iSite, the Dunedin visiting center, and booked a tour for the penguin place. The tour wasn't until 2:15 so we had quite a bit of time to spare. We went to the farmers market for breakfast. I originally wanted a crepe but the crepe truck wasn't there, so I settled on a bacon buttie. We also met a really cool Maori guitarist. I also found out some really cool facts from this woman who sells eggs. I learned that eggs are actually supposed to keep longer when they are not refrigerated. Also that the egg shells absorb flavors in the fridge so if you have a peeled onion in the fridge with the eggs then the eggs will soak in the onion flavors. I also learned that tomatoes and kiwi fruits also should not be refrigerated. After the farmers market we went to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. We did some arts and crafts and submitted our final pieces to an art competition. I decorated a kea bird picture. We then looked at the art exhibits. You can read about the exhibits here. Afterwards, we went to see St. Paul's Cathedral, which is right next door. 

Malori and I with our bacon butties

Inside the gallery 

St. Paul's Cathedral

After St. Paul's Cathedral we decided to go to a cafe before heading back to iSite for our tour. We found the Black Dog Cafe where they made beautiful and delicious hot chocolate. 

And then, as we were sipping our drinks, the All Blacks walk in. It was about lunch time and they were going to eat and play cards. I got them to sign my brown paper bag, since I had nothing else with me. We also took a picture with them. This was super nice, especially since I went to meet them on Tuesday, waited in line for an hour and when I finally got to the door they stopped letting people in. I have now officially met some of the All Blacks and watched a game.

From there we went back to iSite to catch our bus for our tour. We first stopped at Larnach Castle for about 15 minutes. We couldn't go in but we went around and saw the grounds. To read more about Larnach Castle, click here. 

From there, we drove to the Penguin place, a reserve for the yellow eyed penguin. The reserve is near a sheep farm and on a private beach, so people are not able to access the beach. The yellow eyed penguin is the second rarest penguin in the world and also one of the most endangered. They are a little over two feet tall and live only on the east coast of the south island and two little islands farther south. They do not have yellow eyes or stripes when they are born because they get them by eating a certain type of fish.

Because the penguins are very shy and because we could not access the beach, we had to look at them from a trench. The trenches were long tunnels that had different view points, which were little wooden boxes with slits so we could see out. We saw only three penguins that day, though only about forty are estimated to live on the beach. 

A home for a blue penguin.

Monty

This little fellas name is Monty. He had gotten lost when he was really young and had been starving. The reserve took him in and fed him until he was let out a little while ago. One can tell that he is still less than a year old because he has no yellow around his head. They usually begin to develop their yellow feathers after their first molt. His flippers are out because he was over heating and it helps them cool down. It was not warm though, it was just warm for the penguins. I was freezing in the trench. 

I don't know if this on has a name but we saw him swim up from the water and waddle to the hills. We were underneath a little wooden bridge in the trenches and heard him walk over us. 

Sunset at the penguin reserve

We got home at around 7:00PM and I made dinner, which was pasta with onions and broccoli. All together it has been a great week. I am also happy to say that my class chaos has now been resolved! My final class schedule is Chinese 4, Information Structure and Networks, Food and Cultural Perspectives (which I have been calling food science), and Maori Society. I am super excited for my food science lab this Wednesday because my assignment is to make almond cheesecake! I will keep you posted on how that turns out. But before I go, I will update you on the weather again. It is still hailing and snowing. It is actually quite exciting.