Its Now Wednesday

Hello again loyal readers. Yes we have crossed the Tasman and we will start you at day 4 and then work our way back to the start. Today is the day young Jeremy will forever remember as Harry Potter Wednesday. "Can we go to see Harry Potter?" has been coming out of his mouth ever since we arrived. It has only stopped for small words like "cake" and "toilet quick".

This morning we awoke in Dunedin, to be told we were going to museums, castles and to see nature. The bearded one is not all that impressed with nature. He has just a few more questions than Jeremy. Whats for breakfast, lunch and dinner is about it. Philosophy by Riley " The only reason that you eat dinner is to get to dessert". Anyway before we were off to look at nature, we hit the Cadburys chocolate factory. MMMM chocolate. Not a bad way to start the day. How much chocolate can one family buy in a gift shop? After Annette had trampled a poor unsuspecting Korean lady who threatened to take her Creme Brulee chocolate bar, we ended up spending about $30. Take into account the free samples and we are looking at what Mark will now call "High Calorie Wednesday". I am hoping that it doesnt bring on a repeat performance of what will forever be known as "The Tasmanian Chocolate Incident". I will let you know about it when we return. Oh stuff it. Jeremy pigs out on about 100 chocolates hidden in his pockets, goes to bed, tries to drop a smelly one on dad, and spray paints his pants. Jeremy is reading this at the moment and forbids me saying anything else such as the Wattle Grove bath incident. Ask Riley about that one.

So we are eating chocolate on the way to the castle having a lovely drive and wondering how low the speed limit is on a road that has over 129 bends in 8km. We are inching our way up the mountain when we come to a bend that wants us to slow down to 65kmh. Aussie Woosies is what we are. The speed limit is 1ookm. Yikes. We went and saw some nature and went for our free cup of tea and coffee. Jeremy tried coffee for the first time. Probably the last time as well. Annette says "Who wants to go to the ice cream factory?" At that precise moment, I swear, the church type music from above sings "Hallelujah". As travellers we will not go against a sign, so off the the ice cream factory we went. Now all I can say about that is that the 100ml of ice cream I had contained over 400 calories!!! Jeremy told me to put the exclamation marks in. One for every new roll of fat that I just discovered.

From there it was to Baldwin St, (Billy Or Alec) Jeremy says. It is the Worlds steepest street. The boys made it up OK followed somewhat later by Annette. It reminded me a bit of the soccer training Jeremy has been doing most of the year.

Back to our apartment from H P and the Half Blood Prince (better study this one for trivia night) and Annette set off the smoke detector with her cooking of dinner. In fear of never getting another cooked meal, no more will be said of this incident.

Yesterday.

We had a five hour drive from Christchurch to Dunedin with stops on the way. Breakfast at McDonalds to start the day. Jeremy decided he would have some pancakes with his Maple Syrup. Into the car and off we went, mainly in the right direction apart from some small hiccups getting out of Christchurch. How nice it is driving through dark mountains with the family asleep in the car, and sipping on Coke so that you dont fall asleep yourself. For lunch we decided on some little cafe in a place starting with G. I am really focusing at the moment. Geraldine, I am told. It cost over $60 for some bread rolls, drinks and cakes. Now I know the rest of the family are pigs, but that seemed too much. We went back in ready for a fight and found out that the young waitress, probably distracted by my stunning looks, had charged us $33 for one of the drinks. Beware kiwis trying to rip us off.

The day before.

Suffering heavily from arriving at midnight and being woken up way too early, we finally exited our hotel in search of breakfast. I can honestly say that I have never spent $80 on breakfast but it was really nice. It got us through to dinner time, totally stuffing up Rileys theory that you eat breakfast to get to luch and lunch to get to dinner, and of course the dessert thing after that. Mark and Riley dug into "the big breakfast", Jeremy had the worlds biggest pancakes, with bacon and apples and a bucket full of maple syrup. To his credit, he gave me and Riley most of the bacon and finished the rest, apart from a few pieces of apple. Annette French toast with bananas and bacon and maple syrup. "Hi We are a family and we are all foodaholics".

From there we hit the local transport scene and headed to a factory outlet followed by another trip to catch a gondola up a mountain. The intellegent boys were confused as to how a boat could get to the top of a mountain. We then hit the dinner scene and 9 years after being frustrated by Jeremys inability to eat an authentic Nachos in Phoenix (he only ate the corn chips) he actually ate a real nachos with sauce and sour cream and guacomole, and liked it. Grasshopper, when you can eat the nachos from my hand, then it is time for you to leave. What on earth was that line about. Back to the hotel, where the rest of the family went for a swim and sauna. I sat in the dark and watched TV. Gee I could have done that for free at home.

The Flight


Food, Videos and Mum embarrasing Jeremy with outragiously loud laughter while watching comedy show while the flight attendant is talking to her. We arrived, tried to get into a fight with the shuttle bus driver for trying to rip us off, went to the hotel and here we are.


The Wrap

Driving, sight seeing and lots and lots and lots of calories. Read all the soccer results and am not happy. Heading further south tomorrow. Riley wants to know whats for lunch tomorrow. Just found out its 4 and a quarter drive. Bring on the coffee and coke.