Hollin: South Island Road Trip Day 11-12

Day 11-13: Dunedin, Mt. Cook, Kaikoura

We arrived in Dunedin pretty late and stayed at the central backpackers hostel after deiciding we didn't want to sleep in the car. It was pretty swanky and even had a animal fur rug. I was diggin it. We were pretty touristy in Dunedin and ate at Velvet burger which had the most delicious food ever: I got a venison burger with pineapple and special "velvet sauce" and wedges and kumara fries with aoli sauce mmmm... definitely had a food baby after that. Then to top off the awkward fullness feeling we went to the Cadbury chocolate factory where we wore goofy shower caps and ate entirely too much chocolate. Towards the end of the tour there was a huge chocolate waterfall that held two tons of liquid chocolate and was inspired by the Willy Wonka movie. Sweet as. We also saw the uneventful campus (glad I chose Wellington) and made our way to the YHA hostel where we met up with a bunch of friends from our Welly home. I spent the rest of the night getting to know some really cool peoplefrom Sweden, Quebec and Belgium.

The next day we walked up Baldwin street which is the steepest street in the world and then had a travel day to Mt. Cook. This was a beautiful drive because it was a bright blue sky and we had a bunch of cool stops. We pulled over for lunch at Te Kaihinaki boulders in Moeraki Otago which were really cool. We then made our way curving this way and that until we reached Lake Putaki which had the most brilliant turquise water (totally looked fake...but I kid you not!). We probably stopped every few minutes to stare at it and take pictures. As we approached Mt. Cook we just saw more and more mountains until we were completely surrounded. It was beginning to be evening so we decided (much to our dismay and hilarity looking back) to camp in the state park in the flat area between the mountains and a huge lake. Everything was fine until in the middle of the night it started to pour and the wind became an absolute rediculous freak of nature. We were all sleeping with our heads facing the wind and gradually the tent began to engulf our bodies and we heard the pings of the stakes tearing out of the ground. By this time it was about 4 or 5 in the morning so we decided to just stick it out, but it was probably the most hilarious situation ever and at one point all we could do was laugh at our misery. When it was finally light out (for some reason we thought the light would bring an end to the crazy weather) we hurredly packed up the tent until our fingers were frozen and didn't work any longer. To ease some of the pain of this un-tame night we decided to treat ourselves with a huge breakfast and hot chocolate at the local diner. It was wonderful. After this we drove for hours until we reached Kaikoura and spent the night in the car on the beach after having a few drinks at the Strawberry bar.