Celebrations everywhere!

After we had fixed our bicycles we went for an excursion. It was Alexandras 30st birthday and as we were far away from home there had to be some entertainment. 😉 In fact, the “little” excursion of 20 km to Larnach Castle on the Otago peninsula was far more exhausting than we had assumed. After one month of non-cycling we felt some significant pain in our calves. However, we could enjoy some really beautiful landscape and cute sheep.

too laaaaaate

In the late afternoon we also had fondue which is kind of a family tradition of Alexandra and extra for that Mikes family had organised a fondue set. Honestly, there have been some tears of emotion. 🙂 In addition, Kathy had baked a birthday cake and the family gave us two vouchers for the Cadbury chocolate factory in Dunedin. Soooo nice of them! The end of the day was dedicated to Ludo. 🙂

Mike took us to the center of Dunedin the next day, his hometown and former city of studies. Dunedin is a real nice city offering a lot but without being too big. Strolling on the university campus was as great as promenading in the botanical garden, everything is well maintained here.

the old railway station

university

Mike and the crocodile

We also visited the Cadbury chocolate factory with our vouchers and we also received some free chocolate samples. But to be honest, we also bought some chocolate ourselves. 😉

And then it was already New Year’s Eve. In the meantime Mike had returned to Melbourne where is living at the moment. Nice enough, we could still stay with his parents who also drove us to the city center for the turn of the year. There everything was well organised: Due to the laws regarding alcohol the age of every guest had been controlled very carefully (ID) and outside of the bars alcohol is prohibited anyways. Also it is not allowed for private persons to buy fireworks here, only the city can do fireworks. Therefore it hadn’t been too big, but still we had a lot of fun that night. The New Zealanders are such lovely people! There have been many who wished us a happy new year as well, although we were complete strangers. 🙂

Dunedins “Votivkirche” 😉

at the Octagon

a friendly New Zealand stranger