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So the time had arrived, not only were we leaving Queenstown but we were also heading to the airport to pick up our shiny rental car.
We had booked our car through Jucy Rentals, who sent a free shuttle bus to take us from town to a grey, wet airport, where we filled out the appropriate paper work and were given our keys.
After heading over to the rental yard (where the cars are kept) we first laid eyes on our new wheels for the week. A white, 2 litre, Nissan Sunny saloon, with Automatic gearbox, what a beauty. We loaded it up, and were on our way before we knew it.
The weather was no better than when we had left the hostel and the torrential rain was not exactly the conditions we were after to start our week long road trip. Either way it had started and we headed towards our first destination, Dunedin.
Our week long road trip takes us from Queenstown to Dunedin, Invercargill, Te Anua, (up to Milford Sound for the day) before heading back up to Queenstown. Basically a clockwise loop of the southern most bit of the south island. We had initially decided to do the loop anti - clockwise but Sir Elton had other ideas about this.
As we got further out of Queenstown and out onto the open road the weather did actually start to pick up a bit, we were finally driving round all the beautiful roads ourselves rather than being passengers on a bus, it was great. Especially as neither of us have driven for coming on 9 months.
The drive took us through the beutiful New Zealand countryside and after about 5 hours we arrived in Dunedin, actually we arrived at our hostel and we didn't even get lost once.
Our hostel was Chalet Backpackers and it was a interesting one to say the least. It was a big old building, which was once a private hospital, now converted into a backpackers. The decor inside was quite interesting as well, which was clean but pretty dated. Our room was the same but was also very big with a huge window, the size of the exterior wall, complete with two sinks and a section seperated from the room with a panel of wood and glass (the pictures show this better). We both had a hunch, which was confirmed a couple of days later by the manager, that we were infact staying in the old operating theatre. Defintely one of the more 'interesting' hostels we have stayed in.
It got even more interesting when Belle read the welcome sheet on the wall, which along with fire procedure and check out time etc. also had a sentence that said any sightings of ghosts should be reported to the night manager. This hostel was starting to feel like the perfect set for a episode of Scooby Doo.
As we had arrived in the late afternoon we thought we would save the standard stroll round town for another day and instead find the supermarket. This turned out to be a lot more difficult than either of us had imagined. To cut a long story short, the supermarket was like Harry Houdini, we spent a good hour and a half, maybe even two, trying to find it, but eventually we did. Whilst trying to find the supermarket we actually had quite the walk around Dunedin and discovered that the city was pretty dated and a bit run down, almost like we had gone back in time.
We headed back to the hostel with our food, cooked some dinner and managed a nights sleep with out any spooky goings on.
Sunshine greeted us on our second day in Dunedin, which we were keen not to waste. With the nice weather and a NIssan Sunny at our disposal we decided to drive out to the Otago Penninsula, South East of the South Island. Like alot of the time the scenery and the drive were a highlight in itself and when we finally arrived at 'lands end' it was a bit of an anti climax. There is an albertros sanctuary and whole lot of sea gulls knocking about and dodging bombs of poo and trying to ignore the rather funky smell we went and looked out over the sea, where we saw seals. This didn't last too long though as the smell really was that bad and we had a couple of close misses from above. We then drove round the coast a little bit more to another view point, before heading back on the route home.
Instead of heading back the way we came though we decided to head inland a little bit and make a stop at Sand Fly bay. Which is a strip of beach which as it makes its way back from the sea, turns into lush green hills. It is also where seals sleep in the day after some deep sea fishing. After eating a sandwhich in the car we then started to make our way back towards Dunedin.
That evening we had some dinner and then headed out for a couple of drinks in a quiet little bar in the centre of Dunedin, a nicer looking bit of the city, where we sat outside (in November) and had a couple of drinks before heading back to the hostel.
With the Otago Penninsula visited we had one more thing that we both wanted to do before we left Dunedin, visit Cadbury World, which we did on our last day. It is right in the middle of town so after walking down there, booking onto a tour and receiving a hair net each to wear, we were taken into the factory. Unfortunatly there was not an umper lumper in site, however we did get shown round the various floors, where Roses, easter eggs, chocolate buttons, & blocks of chocolate are made. The tour lasted 75 minutes and after seeing different areas of the factory and receiveing free chocolate we finished the tour at the top of a huge ............., where we witnessed one tonne of chocolate being poured from the top of it to the bottom, basically a chocolate water fall.
Like all good tours, museums and places like this we exited through the gift shop, where there were a whole range of goodies on offer. Despite both having a full bag of chocolate each we couldn't resist getting another couple of bits. One of which was a chocolate flavoured fizzy drink. We thought it sounded pretty disgusting as well, but we wanted to try it for the novalty value and after trying it, it wasn't as bad as we thought, Belle actually quite liked it.
After looking at, eating and buying chocolate for the last 2 hours we then headed into town where we found a Country Road shop. After having a quick look round, looking at stuff we could not afford Belle spotted the bag section. Even though Belle bought one in Sydney (and shipped it home) there were completly different colours and styles here, which made her want one. We left just in time though and had look round some of the other shops. However the damage had already been done and ended up heading back to the Country Road shop, so Belle could buy her self another bag. Lucky we were only in Dunedin for one more night.
Just as we decided to head back to the hostel, which was about a 20 minute walk from where we were, it decided to rain, which made for a bit of a soggy walk home. Dinner and packing was how our evening panned out before bed.
Three nights in a ex - private hospital, the operating theatre to be precise, was different to say the least, especially with the rumor of a ghost, but luckily we didn't need to call Scooby and had three good days.
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