Entering Dunedin

Been a busy week (yes I've now been in New Zealand for a whole week!!!), and as of such not a lot of posts...

Okay so last post I'd arrived in Dunedin (techinally a week and a day ago, but as I slept right after the events about to be described I don't count my arrival day in my total).

Arriving at the Dunedin airport 3 hours late my prearranged transport was of course no where to be seen. It looked bleak for about 5min as there were no cabs or shuttles out front. Talking to a very helpful help desk attendent I learned that a shuttle had just left, and he called it to see if it would loop back to come grab me. Fortunently the equally nice driver doubled back to nab me, and I was on my way into town!

Now Dunedin Airport is far out of town (Dunedin is in the top 10 urban city land areas. It is ridiculously spread out!) and it was a 20 min drive just to get "into" town. On the way I got a great view of the local agricultural setup.

It was funny as everyone says New Zealand is NOTHING but sheep. Yet the first 20 farms we went by were cow farms. It didn't feel all that much different from Alberta.

Then we finally hit some sheep paddocks. A lot of sheep paddocks in fact!

Now fun factiod is that contray to popular belief the sheep industry is actually on the decline in New Zealand in recent times. Wool prices are declining in face of synthetic fabrics, and their meat is in far less demand in modern times on the international market. The sheep population has dropped from some 60 million in the 1970's to a mere 40 million in modern times. So as you can see sheep will be a thing of the past in about 60 years.

The vegatation around Dunedin reminded me of BC. Having wandered around I LOVE the forests in the area.

This just added to that very BC feel on the drive into town LOL.

Well that's it for right now. Next I'll show you my current place of living, and then soon there after a tour of Dunedin!