Must Love Goats.

I keep a map of Dunedin in my room and after a run I draw my route on it.

Today, I pre-planned a route along Pine Hill Rd.  Almost immediately after I started, I found myself slogging up the hill.  My body was fighting every step and I thought about calling it quits.  Perhaps it was the steep incline or perhaps it was the two glasses of wine, two pints of beer and swig of absinthe that I drank the night before that made this such a labored run?  Regardless, I bucked up and carried on - I'm not training for anything and I didn't have a running buddy that I was holding backs, so what difference did my pace make?

After about 20 minutes of huffing, puffing and cursing, I was rewarded with a sweet view of the Otago Harbour and the peninsula on my climb.  

But, alas, I had no camera with me to take pictures.  This is something I will have to remedy at some point, not bringing a camera on my runs, because the view of the harbor wasn't the only thing I would have documented on film.

As I climbed up Pine Hill Road, I enjoyed watching farm animals go about their day picking at bits of grass.  Just as I (finally!) was about to turn left and start my return back to Abbey, a goat caught my eye and scurried away. Hmm...

As I got closer, I found quite the scene: five young male goats were hanging out hidden out of sight from other farm animals behind trees with empty beer bottles scattered about.  It's as if the goat that scurried away was rushing over to tell his buddies, "The jig is up! Hide the booze!"  I stopped to chit chat with them because they were cute, furry and friendly then went on my merry way - wishing I had a camera to capture the moment that I caught 5 goats looking something like underage yahoos trying to have a good time.

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Sandy Pants, Thanks Tunnel Beach

Yesterday, Kate and I soaked up some sun by walking to the Ross Creek Reservoir.  The reservoir itself wasn't much to write home about, but we did find a pretty little waterfall on the way.

I've been told it looks awesome after a heavy rain.

Kate noticed this shag chillin' like a villain in the water.

Today, we organized a group outing to check out Tunnel Beach.  It's one of the local DOC walks around Dunedin.  To get there, we walked to the Octagon, hopped on a bus and took a ride across the peninsula.  The driver dropped us off and said to walk 1 1/2 miles and make a left.  Sounded good to us!

The walk to get there was a little steep, but there were great views on the way to the water.

I loved exploring the beach!

In case photos aren't enough, how about a video?

And, yes, there is a manmade tunnel, too.

And, yes, there is more cool stuff to see at the bottom!

Notice that the edge of the water is a little ways back...

Well, I got a little caught up in taking pictures and failed to process that this wave was coming right for me...

I turned quick on the rock that I was standing on so that I could outrun the wave, but proceeded to slip and fall flat on my rump.  I still managed to recover in time to get a snapshot of the one that got me.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had enough of letting us enjoy the sunshine, so we headed back to Abbey College.  I definitely would recommend this trip to those in Dunedin.  Even the scenery above the beach was great!  

By far, the best $6 (for the bus) that I've spent since I've been here!

Rugby 101. Highlanders vs. Stormers

Saturday night, Kate and I watched our first rugby game in New Zealand.  Forsyth Barr Stadium is a quick 15 minute walk from Abbey College and they had student pricing for the game $12.50/ticket.

For students, it's worth noting that we bought two tickets online and the total came to $33.50 with all the extra charges instead of $25 - bummer!  Also, we had a heck of a time picking them up.  As we approached the stadium, we saw more people walking to the left of the stadium, so that's where we went.  I saw a line in front of the ticket window and assumed that's where we would pick up tickets.  Nope.  Someone said we had to go to the other side of the stadium, so off we went.  Got in the ticket line there, but it turns out we were supposed to stop at the small building on ANZAC Ave. So, off we went, again.  Picked up the tickets and walked towards the gates closest to us.  Got denied and sent to the other side of the stadium to the gate closer to our seats, where we originally walked to.  Moral of the story, learn from our mistakes or plan on being at the stadium well before the 7:35pm start time!

Once inside, we stopped to catch the start of the game before heading to our seats.

And, those seats ended up being at the faaaaar end of the field, but we still could see the game just fine.

Despite being in the student section, things were pretty uneventful for most of the game, except for lone heckler in this video:

"He won't get it!"

The Highlanders weren't winning, so we amused ourselves by watching these characters:

The game was interesting to watch, even though I had no idea what was going on and why.

In the end, the Highlanders lost to the Stormers, 6-21.

"You &^$!ed up!"