Trip to Dunedin

On the Otago Coast at Mouraki Boulders
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We had arranged to go to Dunedin this past weekend to keep Evan company while he played in the national championships with the Manawatu Pipeband that he has joined.  They did not play out of respect for their pipe major's dad who passed away last weekend.  We decided to go to Dunedin in any case as Evan wanted to meet up with his friend Paul who now lives in Sydney but had travelled over for the contest.

We stopped on the way on the beach at the Mouraki Boulders just as the sun was coming up.  The sea is amazingly clean, pretty deserted and with long streches of white sand.

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We were going to leave on friday afternoon but we were all too tired to drive so we went to bed early and got up at 4am instead.  The drive takes about 4 1/2 hours, which is quite far to go for 1 night, but we had a really nice time and saw Dunedin at its most magnificent, in glorious sunshine.  It is situated on a bay, by the Otago Peninsula and is a farily large university town.  The links with Scotland, and particularly Edinburgh, are quite strong.  It is odd to be walking down George Street and Princes Street, Moray Place, etc.  Very lively with lots of young people about.  We pitched the tent up, had a swim in the pool and then drove back into town.  We left Evan with the bands and the kids and I had a great time exploring the city.  The highlight for them was visiting a chocolate factory and getting bags of freebies and eating them til they felt ill. Thankfully they started to melt into each other in the heat, so it became quite hard to know which flavour you were actually supposes to be eating!.  I, being my grumpy self, enjoyed it on their behalf, but it was totally cheesy!!  Megan and Luca were the only children there, which I found even odder!  They made enough noise with the sugar rush flowing through them to make it more lively and seem like there was a school group with us!

Bulding stuff.
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We picked Evan up looking and sounding the worst for wear after 8 pints in ther sun....The kids had a good giggle when he was telling me on the way home that he loved me vey much and  "no, don't laugh, I really do, baby...". The kids swam more still and we played snakes and ladders until it got too dark and we couldn't see a bloody thing at which point we stumbed about in the dark looking for pyjamas because Luca had taken the torch from the bag I had packed it in,to play, the night before at home, so we were in the pitch black.  On sunday we packed up the tent and made our way home.

Snakes and ladders.
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It was too far to go for 1 night but it was lovely to be somewhere different, we had a lovely time.