"On the Road Again, Goin' Places that I've Never Been..."

The Lake Wanaka trip was a success! Skydiving was life-changing, we found hidden gems like 'Puzzle World' and got to look and simply 'marvel at something' a.k.a. Lake Wanaka itself! To me, this was one of my favorite cities that I have seen thus far and I believe that if I were to live in NZ, I would want to retire in Wanaka and I mean that in the most positive way! It was such a quaint little town and in my perfect life, I would spend my days owning a small cafe, my nights at one of the local restaurants with a nice glass of wine and my weekends kayaking, riding my bike or partaking in some other sort of physical activity. However as the saying goes, all good things come to an end and it was on to our next destination! DUNEDIN- HERE WE COME!

Now, it has come to my attention that Dunedin seems to have a somewhat negative connotation surrounding it. People (both Kiwis and non-Kiwis alike) have seemed to have nothing but bad things to say about Dunedin and the people that live there. I have to disagree however, well with part of it.. the town of Dunedin is QUITE lovely but some of the people there really do kind of stink (mostly because they hate so much on Amurrica) I know what you are thinking... don't a lot of people hate on America? Well yes, this is the case since most Kiwis associate us with either:
a)The Jersey Shore Cast
b)Legally Blonde OR
c) Mean Girls...
...take your pick, right? I would not like us either....

With that being said, I was sad that we did not get to spend a few more days there because the scenery was quite lovely. Some interesting facts about Dunedin:
1.) It is the world's 5th largest city (in geographical size)
2.) Is home to Baldwin Street- THE steepest street in the world...
3.) Dunedin's Railway station is the most photographed building in New Zealand...
4.)NZ's ONLY castle, Larnach Castle is located on the Otago Peninsula near Dunedin (more on that in the next post!)
...and the list goes on!

On our way into town, I then met up with my sweet friend Matty (fellow IU student studying in Dunedin) because I have not seen him all semester! He took a break from studying to come say hello and we decided that we must meet up in town later.. (well really I said we must or we were no longer going to be friends!)

That evening we had a tour and dinner of The Speight's Ale House. This was AWESOME. Although I am not a HUGE fan of beer (I know...sorry) it was still a blast and very informative! We had about a 90 minute tour of the brewery and got to see some history behind the Ale house, the ingredients that go into making the beer as well as each step of the process. After our tour, we got to pour and try SIX of their beers! Ranging from light Cider (my favorite of course!) to a dark (and yucky) coffee tasting beer. GROSS. However, still cool to try! After our tour, we sat down for a DELISH 3-course meal consisting of soup, steak and chocolate mud cake for me. NOM. Afterwards Matt picked up Brenda, Hillary and I and we went back to his flat to hang out with some of his flat-mates before heading out to a local bar there called "Refuel." Boy, did some of the sights 'refuel' my energy: mullets and dancing and bar fights galore!

Professional.

Overall the trip was wonderful! Dunedin was beautiful... road-tripping was a blast and it was an added bonus getting to see Matt! (It was about time I got to see a familiar face!) Dunedin in the furthest South on the South Island that I was going to get on this abroad trip so I made the most of it!! Now it was back to Wellington to crank out some last minute final papers to end this school year! Cannot believe I just typed that....