Donut -- Mission Wolffuxoring & Sheepmongrelling, April 2nd to April 20th, 2006

we drink! & good work avoiding April Fools Day! um way too far in advance to think if there's anything in particular on . . . any Dunedin/Wgtn people going to be around & about?

& I can offer a spare bed; I live on Karangahape/K Rd, which is pretty much as central as you can get.

oh wait, just saw the ILE thread.

wicked news!! you coming any further south than ak?

The cities I want to visit in total (and possibly more) in rough chronological order:

Sydney
Melbourne
Auckland
Wellington
Dunedin
Christchurch

If there are glaring ommissions, PLEEEZ (persuade me to hear your) feedback!

are you going to be in dunedin for very long? i can't put you up, i'm afraid, no spare bed or foldout couch unfortunately, and we have an infestation of mice in the kitchen which is sehr grody. i do have a car tho and would be happy to take you on trips to nearby scenic areas if you would like :-).

hey di! please don't feel bad about not being to give me a place to crash.. I understand. I was probably going to stay for three days or so? I've yet to get a full idea of how travel works within Aus, within NZ, and between Aus and NZ. It all depends on if I decide to take buses or planes up and down the country. Part of me is considering taking the ferrying between the two islands, too.

Are there options to stay in Dunedin near the center of town that are relatively cheap? I would love socialize with everybody if there is something going on in mid April or so.. (or early April.. I haven't book my Auckland/Sydney inner flight yet.. )

there are plenty of affordable backpackers in town. if you come into dunedin on the plane i am happy to pick you up from the airport. hey email me at smidi194 at student dot otago dot ac dot nz and i can help you out :-)

awesome. thank you. I'll email you. It looks like I'm tentatively planning on being in Dunedin the weekend of April 14th to 16th (fri-sat) at the very least. Still wondering if doing the bus thing, plane thing, or both is worth it. I kinda need to do my detailed NZ geography homework.. I mean, I know there are two islands, and that Auckland and Dunedin are at opposite ends, and Wellington and Christchurch are in the middle somewhere (south end of north island, I think(?)), but that's all I know right now.

Main cities in NZ:

North Island (N to S)

Auckland
Hamilton
Wellington

South Island (N to S)

Christchurch
Dunedin

If you come to Wellington, let me know - I can't put you up, but we can have a pint if you like.

Arrright, my itinerary!

it kinda breaks up Auckland into two sorta halves but here goes...

* Monday, April 10th, Fly from Sydney to Auckland, arrive at night
* Tuesday, April 11th, take the Overlander train all day from Auckland to Wellington
* Friday, April 14th, fly from Wellington to Dunedin, arrive in afternoon
* Monday, April 17th, take InterCity Coach along east coast from Dunedin to Christchurch
* Tuesday, April 18th, leave Christchurch in evening to Auckland
* Thursday, April 20th, late afternoon, leave Auckland to go back home.. arrive back in Seattle earlier in the afternoon that same "day"

I'm sad only because this leaves me fragmented time in Auckland (a night at first, then two days at the end), and one day in Christchurch... I do spend 2.5 days in Wellington, and 3-ish days in Dunedin though... It would have been nice to take a day off to go through Mt. Cook and to the west coast from Christchurch and back.. but oh well.

ah, cool! if yr in need of somewhere to stay when yr in auckland, &c&c&c; + we'll organse a FAP closer to the time.

Yay! Thank you... Auckland will be the home stretch of the entire trip, as it looks. I want to bring gifts to all involved :)

I have not forgotten about all you rock cats in Dunedin and Wellington (and Christchurch.. hello? I'll double-check my email, but I haven't heard of anybody there yet.)

BTW, does that coastal shuttle trip from Dunedin to Christchurch sound like a useful way to spend 5-6 hours? Or will it be really boring and not much to see? I don't care what the weather is like... I like grey beach scenery as well as sunny beach scenery.

Ironically, Auckland will be the most visited city on my entire trip, as it's the central point of my travel within both countries.. I'll just be seeing the airport when I first fly over..

...and then the city just for a night after I head back from Oz...

...and then finally wallow in Auck for two days at the very end. :)

Dunedin-Chch's an Ok ride, a bit repetitive tho as I remember. More fun to drive prob.

i don't currently drive unfortunately... :(

I'm just wondering if it would be worth the extra few hours if I were to take a more inland route and head east back to Chch instead?

chch-dn is pretty boring. the canterbury plains, argggh.

well, it's either that or a more expensive Chch-Dn plane trip. \

Then again, I'm totally bored crossing Lake Washington/seeing Mt. Rainier on occasion every morning going to work, but this is breath-taking to visitors here... *shrug*... Grass is greener, etc. :)

If you like looking at grass you should do it, f'sure

well you'll get to cross the neverending bridge and see the giant fish at rakaia or wherever it is. and lots of limestone crap on your way thru oamaru, which is incidentally where i am from. and the giant hen-shaped hedge at waikouaiti. maybe they should make a giant statue of a blade of grass to represent the canty plains.

Oamaru's really worth a vist says my creaky memory, lotsa sweet as stone buildings from the 1920s or 1870s or some old time like that, also there's at least one really nice oldstyle pub

OK, so I'm about to send out e-mails to all of you who have e-mailed me before about TEH NZ PHAPPING! It's only a week and a half away.

I'm including a friend of mine from Vancouver in the Dunedin email trail because he knows a couple of professors at otagu...

(Would be nice to stop in Oamaru, but I'm afraid I'll be only stopping there as a result of the shuttle driver picking people up, if anybody there wants to go to ChCh that is... then again, maybe he or she will be cool and let us go and see the boulders on the beach(!) while he/she has a smoke)

OK, the FLIGHT over is a week and a half away.. I'm not in NZ proper until 4/10 and leave 4/20.. so that's still a ways away... but if there is anything going on in town during that time frame... :D

Ess Kay, your email failed. :(

How long are you gonna be in Auckand for?

I arrive Tues 4/18 at night.. I leave early evening Thurs 4/20... admittedly, not much time.

I was planning to go to Rangitoto Island on the 19th during the day, but if that's a bad idea, feel free to dissuade me. :)

Ironically, I'll be in Auckland twice before then, but the first time will be early morning April 2nd at the airport, on a layover to Sydney, and then coming BACK from Australia the evening of Monday, April 10th, where i have to grab the Overlander train the next morning.

I'm staying at the Aspen House on the 10th, then the Auck City Hotel for 4/18 to 4/20.

Rangitoto is very nice! I highly recommend it. Would you like to meet up with the Auckland crowd on Wednesday sometime then?

Sounds great to me. Hopefully the weather won't be heavily rainy that day, as that could be the only thing to dissuade me from going to Rangitoto at this point...(even cloudy and drizzly would be fine, or just isolated downpours.)

Elisabeth, is that your real e-mail in the parentheses? I've been keeping lists of people to e-mail offlist as well... thank you..

I'm guessing I'll have no success emailing dot@dot.dot either . . . um, email me at stevie dot kaye at gmail dot com.

Yep, that's my real address

xxpost

If you are going to Rangitoto you should hit Devonport too, I says.

Hey gang... well, I've been in Wellington for a while. Really lovely here.. took more photos here than I can possibly imagine. Off to dunedin tomorrow afternoon and for the weekend!

OK, in Dunedin. Walking around octagon today..if you see guy in glasses, black jeans, black Whistler T-shirt or black Easy Street Records Seattle hoodie (depending on whether the winds kick up), please say hi. Going to the Arc now.. hope to hit up Records^2 later. Might go to the Peninsula today if shuttle buses out there are not operating Sunday. Anyway! It's a small town, so if you see me, pull me aside. :)