Break continued (Dunedin and Day 1 in Queenstown)

Day 3
We got up bright and early to make good time to Dunedin. We all piled into our car that seemed to be getting messier by the minute and found ways to entertain ourselves. We played the classic "marry, date, dump" and "if" and there was lots of laughter. When it was time for lunch, we realized that there were no food places in sight and decided to be creative. We had leftover made pasta, chocolate frosting, peanut butter, and bread. So what did we do? Make frosting, peanut butter sandwiches of course! We did not have utensils though, so we used our hands, which made it that much more adventurous! It really did seem like a great idea after being in the car for 4 hours straight. In all honesty, they were not half bad.

Marian chowing down on a frosting noodle sandwich

We finally arrived in Dunedin and checked into our hostel (Hogwartz yay!), but had to sprint to the Cadbury factory because we were late for our tour. Cocoa Joe waited patiently, though, with hairnets and snood (for Josh) in hand. We received a bag full of delicious candies and got to sample some liquid chocolate, because really what would be better than that after chocolate frosting sandwiches?! 

Lookin' good in our hair nets and snood

The Dream!

After the tour, we met up with my friend, Sophie, who is from Dunedin and promised to show us the lay of the land. She drove us out to Otago Pennisula where we came face to face with yellow-eyed penguins (Jen's sense of curiosity almost got her finger bitten off) and sea lions. It was so surreal! We spent several hours exploring the shore, playing in the sand, and observing the wildlife.

Coast

Yellow-eyed penguin up close and personal

Frickin' huge sea lion up close and personal

Great day! 

We decided to try out the Dunedin night life, since the last two nights had not been too successful. Unfortunately because it was a Monday night, there was nothing too hoppin' but we share some delicious pizza and explored the city. We then went back to our hostel and I explored my dream. The entire hostel was Harry Potter themed and I was in heaven! I made my friends take pictures of me with everything and be in ridiculous pictures with me and I even got a wand!!

With a real live snitch

outside of Hogwartz with our wands

Gringottz and its super secret vaults 

Oh my gosh, Hedwig brought me some mail

We then tried to watch the first Lord of the Rings (we are in New Zealand after all), but I was tuckered out, so I hit the sack pretty early.

Day 4
We still wanted to explore Dunedin a little more, so Marian and I headed to the art museum and Josh and Jen headed to the sports museum. Our museum was really interesting and had some great art. We met up at the Dunedin Train Station, which is beautiful. The receptionist said it is the second most photographed place in New Zealand. We then headed to Baldwin Street, which is the steepest street in the world and, let me tell you, it was STEEP! We pretended to roll down it and caused regular mayhem. In this mayhem, there was a bit of a mishap with my camera, but luckily Jen is a registered silversmith (ok so I don't know if she is registered, but she really is a silversmith) so she fixed that business right on up.

Dunedin Train Station

Baldwin Street

Crochet graffiti 

We then headed off to Queenstown. It is the "snow" capital of New Zealand and definitely had an Aspen/Vail sort of feel. Josh and I started to keep track of all of the white guys with dreads and got to around 15. We went to our hostel and realized it had a very different feel. It was a lot bigger and the crowd was very young. We knew there would be stuff to do, even if it was a Tuesday night. We went out to a local pub which was packed and listened to some live music. Jen and Marian made some "friends" who tried to dance with them to Jack Johnson-y tunes. It was uncomfortable for everyone, but laughable especially when the guys busted out the jazz hands... seriously.