Voyage diary: Dunedin, Moeraki Boulders, Ashburton and Mount Cook!!

Hey everyone! (:
Another exciting weeks have passed, new places, new impressions!!

Together with my hostfamily we went down to Dunedin to celebrate their daughter's birthday, and we had heaps of nice stops on the way: :)

Ashburton:

Arrived in Dunedin, we had 'birthday dinner' in an Asian restaurant:

my hostmum Su, my hostdad Allan, Surrey their daughter, her friend

Lovely view on Dunedin on the next morning:

We climbed Baldwin Street - the steepest street in the world!!

Later we visited the chocolate factory of my favourite chocolate - Cadbury!! Devine! :D
They gave us liquid chocolate, yuuum!

Sadly you weren'r allowed to take pictures inside the factory.

On our way home my hostparents showed me one of the coolest and most stunning places I've seen here - the Moeraki Boulders!!
This is a beach with huuuuge round stones, nobody really knows how they've been shaped or how they came there. :D
Anyway - they're simply beautiful!

from this point of view it still looks like a normal beach, but theeen....

wuhuuu :)

It's not as easy to get up there as it looks like!

Further on our way...

... it was windy!!

... it was nice though (:

In this region you sometimes see penguins - we didn't, but fortunately we saw some seals! :))

Other funny things we encountered:

At the end of May we had a 3-day-trip with our international students from RHS. :)
We visited lots of special places, some of them I've already been to, but for most of them it was my first time!
On the first day we went down to Mount Cook, with heaaaaaps of wee stops on the way!!

Frankiiiiieee! xoxo

It was a bit colder over there than in our area - but still we had a lot of fun and the nature was simply stunning!!

Some minutes further away we arrived at Lake Tekapo - honestly, this is the most beautiful lake I've ever seen!! :o Its colour looks unreal, just WOW!

quick selfie (:

time for group pics! :D

of course my NZL flag mustn't miss out!

...we're just having fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun, we don't care who seeeeeeeeeees

Arrived at Mount Cook, the temperatures are even a liiiiiittle colder!!

Say hello to the snow:

Doing the Hooker Valley Walk :) :

Right in front of Mount Cook! :))

happy group :-)

A neat sight - the landscape covered by snow, a lovely sunset at the horizon:

At night we stayed at an accomodation close to Mount Cook. We watched 'Hannah' - a movie I can't really advise haha :D

Our second day started with some fabulous stops with great views!!!
No need to add anything else at that point, simply have a look yourself (:

stunning!!

Later in the morning we arrived at Benmore Hydroelectric Dam where we had a look around:

Afterwards we visited the Maroi gravings 'Takiroa Rock Art Site'

Sadly we couldn't see as much as of the gravings as we had expected:

some other impression from that place:

Pics and views from our bus stops inbetween :D

we ♥ cookies

definitely not as boring as a drive through the countryside of Germany!

In the afternoon we arrived in Dunedin! First thing to do: visit the Chocolate Factory, of cooooourse! :DD

After our tour through the factory, which was longer than the one I had done before, I met up with two of my friends I had made on the North Island tour - the twins Antonia and Laura. :)
They've lived in Dunedin for about 5 months, so they already knew the significant places the city has to offer. So first they showed me around - this is Dunedin's well-known Railway Station:

At the 'Octagon', a square in Dunedin:

Dunedin's streets by night:

:D :D

I had a great time with my friends! We had so many things to tell each other and so much to laugh about. (: Later in the evening we had a meal together at a restaurant and I stayed at Antonia's house for a few hours, before I had to leave again to go to the hotel our group stayed at.

That was a lovely hotel - looking antique from the inside, very special.

The next morning we were climbing the steepest street of the world, also an old friend of mine :)