Two Beers and a Pretzel

A belated Happy Easter to everyone!!!

Megan and I booked a tour of the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin for Easter Sunday (Kiwi’s celebrate Easter Friday, then have a public holiday on Monday).  It was a movie set looking place with all kinds of wildlife (other than stuffed bunneis).

Royal Albatross were hard to snap, but I got a video…

Oyster Catchers

Sheep up on the hill.

Baby Seals below the hill

Seal Lions on the beach – that we got 12 feet from with no safety barricade other than our guide.

Yellow-Eyed Penguins were a highlight…

…especially watching them jump up a hill and walk by the sheep…

By then it was getting close to sunset, so we had to go…

We stopped at a pub downtown for Easter dinner.  I had Lamb meatballs and salad…

The next day (Monday) we were back on the bus to Lake Tekapo.  Before leaving Dunedin, we stopped to walk up the world’s steepest street.

Then we stopped at the Koeraki Bounders – a formation of naturally round rocks on the beach…

This next photo is for my buddy Chris who used to compete in the USA Strongest Man contests…

We drove by Mount Cook, but it was obscured by clouds…

And stopped at the Church on Lake Tekapo – which is supposodly the most photographed church in New Zealand, as well as hosting 600+ weddings a year.  It might have something to wint being on the shore of an unreal blue lake with the Southern Alps in the background.  No photos allowed inside, but with a bay window behind the alter looking to the lake and mountains, I can see why it’s popular for weddings.

We had a Magic Bus cookout in Lake Tekapo where I was Grillmaster (no one else wanted to be responsible for anyone’s food poisoning).  Later, a number of us went up the hill on the tour of the Mt. John’s Observatory… (which is one of the places currently locating planets in other solar systems).

The city uses high efficiency reflectors and lower wattage lights so that the observatory can do its’ work…

We saw Saturn in it’s full glory, the Tarantula Nebula, a number of star clusters, and the Sombrero Galaxy.  All to difficult to photograph.

Here’s the shot my dad’s been asking for – the Soutern Cross (Crux)…  which actually doesn’t point to true south, but there’s an easy way to find it once you’ve located Crux (try wikipedia to find out).  Crux is the kite just above center.  Alpha and Beta Centauri are the two bright starts below the kite…

I’m in Christchurch today, and fly to Auckland and Sydney tomorrow – so Bye Bye New Zealand.  I’ll definately be back someday.  The only real bummers were not being allowed to skydive, and not catching a live rugby match.

I also have to check the latest travel warnings for Thailand to see if I’m still going there…