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Day 39 - Still in Dunedin, we started our day with a tour of NZ's Cadbury World. It wasn't too expensive plus there was an added bonus of being given bars of chocolate during the tour around the factory. It's one of Cadbury's smaller factories (although still quite big in size) and for no other reason than entertainment, has the world's only chocolate waterfall. As we all shouted "chocolate!" as loud as we could, 1 ton of melted chocolate came flying out from above us making a thundering noise and not missing us by much!
Once we'd had our fill of sugar related entertainment we drove over to one of Dunedin's other claims to fame, that being the 'Steepest Residential Street in the World' in the Guinness Book of Records. We walked up (and back down) the street and got a certificate of our own to prove it! It really was at a ridiculous angle with the pavement turning into steps and a handrail to assist people such as us! An interesting, if not tiring way to spend an hour!
Day 40 - We left Dunedin today and continued north along the coast. Our first stop was at another area where a few Yellow Eyed Penguins are located. For the second time we were unable to spot any penguins however we did find a huge seal colony and the most amount of seals we've seen to date. There was at least a hundred of them all resting on rocks and areas all along the coast - brilliant!
Our second stop was at a beach that is home to the Moeraki Boulders. Neither of us knew exactly what they were so famous for but we were interested to find out. They were certainly unusual and quite amazing at the same time. What we found strewn along the beach were lots of huge and perfectly spherical boulders which looked like the only way they could have got there was from outer space as there is no cliffs or other rocks nearby. Some had fascinating patterns on them and some were cracked open so you could see inside them. Once we'd finished looking at them all in astonishment we popped into the cafe to find out exactly what they were and how they'd got there. Unfortunately aliens had no part to play in it, just good old fashioned mother nature as usual. Back when sea levels were higher, on the sea bed there were many things building up and getting compressed (much like the snow on the glaciers) and for some reason the combination of various elements meant that these rocks started with a centre and amassed size, layer upon layer over millions of years, to create these huge perfectly round boulders. As for where they have come from, behind the beach is a sand/dirt bank where all these boulders have been hiding. As the sea and elements cause the banks to retreat and crumble, the boulders are revealed one by one. A rational explanation after all, still it's quite amazing to have seen and touched things that are 40million years old!
Our last stop was Oamaru, the only town in NZ with Victorian buildings. We didn't know this before we arrived so were pleasantly surprised to find not just another town along the way. Also, just outside the town was the last place in the country where we might be able to see the very rare Yellow Eyed Penguins (who are native to NZ). Well, it was obviously third time lucky as we were ecstatic to find a mother and 2 babies feeding, moving around and squeaking at each other! It was a special moment standing there and watching them especially as we were only around 15ft from their nest. We didn't see penguins coming out of the sea and waddling up the beach to their nests after a day out feeding, which is what everyone comes for, but just to see one was worth the effort and the fact there were 2 babies there too meant we were made up. We're very lucky and amazingly, this completes our 'must-sees' of NZ's wildlife - yipee!
Day 41 - We made an effort to be up early this morning so that we could go the local library to use their Internet for Fiji research, and then to their swimming pool for a swim and a shower (we should just add that we haven't written about each time we've showered, so please don't be alarmed and think that we've only washed a few times in a couple of months!).
Once we had freshened up we went for a walk around the Victorian area of town before heading back to camp. We met a lovely older lady travelling with her 2 dogs and after Andy went over there to fuss them he got talking to her and we were invited into her campervan. We had a good chinwag for a couple of hours where we found out among many other interesting things that she had lived in England for several years when she was younger (it took her 6 weeks by boat to get there rather than a 1 day flight these days) and had visited Windsor, just one of many times during this trip where we've discovered just how small the world really is.
Day 42 - Today was mainly a driving day but before we hit the road we said goodbye to the lady and her dogs and headed back into town. We finalised some bookings for Fiji and popped into an old fashioned sweet shop where we picked up some boiled sweets and bon-bon's to help us on our journey! Our route today takes us back inland and all the way up to Mount Cook. We drove through some small quaint towns and past a couple of dams holding water of the strangest colour, almost a bright white crossed with turquoise shade, clearly glacier melt.
The drive into and through the valley towards Mount Cook was nothing short of epic. We stopped to get photos of the mountain range in front of us with the snow capped range sat in between walls of other mountains. The town here is very small but has the best information centre we've ever seen! It's very modern with history about the area and past expeditions with lots of different displays as well as an enormous window which frames the mountain itself - stunning. Before heading to camp we drove around Mount Cook to see the Tasman glacier, the biggest and longest one in NZ. It's currently 29km long but had you seen it 17,000 years ago it reached 80km! A 15minute walk up a hill revealed the glacier to us but most of it was under a metre or so of dust and rock so it was quite hard to distinguish it from its surroundings. The huge river running away from it (this explains the brightly coloured water being held by the dams we'd seen previously) had huge icebergs floating in it which revealed the beautiful blue colour the ice is beneath the surface.
Our camp was at the foot of Mount Sefton with no streetlights or towns nearby, and when it got dark we were fortunate to have clear skies which meant we were able to look up and see thousands of stars, beautiful.
Day 43 - We didn't do very much today. We drove back out of the valley and toward Lake Tekapo, a small town with a huge lake that has a view of the same mountains at the very end of it. They have an observatory here, the Mount John Observatory which is famous for being surrounded by 'the clearest nights sky in the Southern Hemisphere' - not just due to its location, apparently the air here is literally less dense (the scientific term!) giving a clearer view. However, the skies are covered in clouds today, I guess that doesn't count toward clarity! Fortunately we are ahead of schedule so we have booked to go stargazing tomorrow night as the weather looks as though it'll be a little clearer. We did drive up to the observatory today in the daytime to get some nice views, they have a cafe up there and we sat outside where Nikki had some cake at 1000ft. There's a first! Before we headed to our camp we visited 'The Church of the Good Shepherd', the most photographed building in NZ. It's a very small unsuspecting church, however people come from all over the world to get married here. The reason for this, is its location. It sits on the edge of Lake Tekapo with the snow capped mountains behind it in the distance. It's extremely picturesque and would make for some spectacular wedding photos, especially as the wall behind the alter is a big window looking toward it all. Very pretty.
Day 44 - As previously mentioned we are booked to go stargazing for 10.30pm, so we have to find something to do for the rest of the day. We relaxed at our camp in the morning and after lunch headed into town to the hot springs. These were natural as far as water being pushed up from the ground, but it was cold water so it was heated and sent into 3 different pools of different temperatures, 36, 38 and 40 degrees respectively. The water was also held in what resembled swimming pools so it just felt like sitting in a big hot bath. Still, it was outdoors and we were surrounded by really nice scenery, not a bad way at all to waste away a few hours!
We had spent the entire day looking up at the sky, never before have we paid so much attention to the clouds as we willed them to disappear so that we could have unspoilt views in the evening. Well, somebody was looking down on us as from mid afternoon onwards the skies above us were completely clear, we were so happy! At around 10pm we headed to the meet up point where we would then be driven up to the observatory as the road is closed to the public from 6pm. As the bus winded up the narrow roads our driver told us that the headlights would have to be switched off for the last quarter of the drive so as not to shine them directly into $7million worth of telescope, but we were told not to worry as he was "on a strict carrot diet"!
Once we safely made it to the top the lights were kept off and nobody had torches, this is so our eyes could completely adjust to the darkness allowing us to see more with our naked eyes. It takes about 20minutes till your eyes are completely adjusted and looking at a camera screen or anything would mean the whole process would then start again. Our guides had small red torches which wouldn't affect our vision at all and we were led up toward the top of the hill for the start of our 'tour' around the night sky. Before we'd even started we were all in awe as you could see thousands upon thousands of stars above and all the way around us. It was stunning, really breathtaking.
Using powerful green laser pens, our astronomer pointed out the Southern Cross (which is on the NZ flag) as well as the two pointer stars which are bright and point towards it. Most of what we were seeing we cannot see back home as it is all in the southern hemisphere and below the horizon at night in the UK. We were shown the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, which is 8.6 light years away, and our nearest star (other than the sun obviously) Proxima Centauri, which is 4.2 light years away. We could also see two clouds, one smaller than the other which amazingly are 2 other galaxies, and we could see them unaided with our own eyes - unbelievable! Of course as well as all the above we were constantly looked over by the Milky Way which streaked across the night sky and arched over us as clear as day. After this we were free to wander around and look through various telescopes that had been set up. First though we headed into one of the huge telescopes, the ones that are in the white domes. This one is the biggest in NZ that has an eyepiece on it and is only open to the public at the moment as no research is being done with it. Through it we looked at Orion's Nebula which if you look at the constellation of Orion, makes up the middle star of Orion's sword. Around the star are gasses (from previously exploded stars) that spread out from the star in a shape that looks like an eagle or a Batman logo. We next looked at the Tarantula nebula which doesn't look like a tarantula but similarly was a load of gasses of different colours. After this we wandered around looking through smaller telescopes at different clusters of stars and at the Milky Way. Just after midnight Andy was with an astronomer who pointed his telescope at a small reddy/orange star that had just risen over the horizon. Andy looked at it through the telescope and then ran as fast as he could to get Nikki to come and have a look too. You see it wasn't a star, it was a planet, and not just any planet, it was Saturn. Amazingly, through a telescope no bigger than one you can buy, although it was very small we could quite clearly see the planet and unbelievably, the rings that encircle it. It was absolutely amazing, almost mind boggling, we were so excited and amazed by it at the same time. We weren't aware that our bus back down was leaving only a few minutes later, so we had unintentionally created our own finalé, leaving the best bit until last. We had such a great time and it was well worth the money. We were big fans of the 'Wonders of the Solar System' tv show and are so pleased we went on the tour and got such a clear night, because to see all these things with our own eyes was unforgettable, a night we will always remember. Wow.
For any fellow Universe fans, we learnt a lot and asked some questions so will share some knowledge with you. The amount of stars we can see in the skies from Earth (on both hemispheres) is only 1% of all the stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The Milky Way is made up of 8 'arms' and we and our Solar System sit in one of them. There are approximately 40billion stars in our Galaxy and, try and get your head round this, there are also approximately 40billion Galaxies in the known Universe. Insane! For people to think we are the only life forms is ridiculous considering how much more there is out there!
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