Only in heaven would an angel apologize for smoking (Part 2)

Luckily, the next morning when we tried to extend our stay for a second night, the hostel said they were booked, and that we would have a tough time finding a vacancy due to a Rugby game being played in town. Liz called up this place called Hogwartz (we confirmed it is named after the Hogwarts in Harry Potter), and surprisingly they had a room available. We grabbed our bags and started the upward climb to Hogwartz. We couldn’t be happier here. The one owner is so freaking nice - she looks like a 25-years-in-the-future Liz, it’s kind of funny. There are two dogs running around, a piano, guitars, lounge rooms everywhere, the nicest bathrooms and showers we’ve seen so far. It’s a really sweet set up. We wish we could live here.

Reading Loft

View of the Otago Bay

Cathedral built in the 1870's

For the creative type

For the past two days, we’ve been exploring the city and I really love it so far. Tons of great places to eat, shops, a theater, cool little churches, skaters everywhere, and it’s a short 15 minute bus ride to the nearest beach. Great place.

Thursday night we went to see the final Harry Potter film. I thought it was really great. It’s sad to see it all end, but I can always go back and watch these 8 films over and over again. Awesome series of movies. I’m bummed I didn’t get to finish it with my mom. A couple of years ago, we started watching the series together while my dad was traveling back and forth to PA for work every week. At some point in time, I think around the 5^th year (film), my mom kept falling asleep in the first 10 minutes, so I decided that I needed to be strong and push on without her. Mom, when I get back I’ll hook you up to a Red Bull IV and we’ll have a Harry Potter marathon.

Yesterday, we walked down to the university, seeing more of Dunedin along the way. It gets a little less charming, and a little grungier the closer you get to the university, but still fun. After the university, we ended up at the Cadbury chocolate factory, passing the Upstairs Massage along the way. Nothing special at the factory. All of the tours were booked, sadly enough, so we headed back to Hogwartz. My day wasn’t finished yet, so after eating some pasta I headed back out into the night. Popped my head in a CD shop and talked to the owner there for a while. I found out that most people working at retail stores around the area make about $15 (NZ) ($12 (US)) plus commission…WHAAAA! That was nice to find out. Next, I headed to the “mall” and found some awesome things in JB Hi-Fi, which is sort of like a Best Buy. I snagged an Australian Tour edition of Bloc Party’s last album, which had a track unreleased in the states on it, as well as an entire 13 track live album. I was all jazzed up. I love music, so I’m excited to find any unusual releases here in New Zealand. After my sweet find, back to Hogwartz I went.

Since being in Dunedin, we’ve been unsuccessfully looking for a flat to stay at for the next three months. We’ve only seen two places so far. The first place was really sweet. $103 (NZ) or $80 (US) per person, everything included, with a huge room, and a ten minute walk to a gorgeous beach, but it was a shared house with flatmates. Flatmates are fine with us, but the only flatmate in the place is roughly in his 40’s…we were looking for flatmates a little closer to our age. The second place we saw was a dump. It was roughly the same price, but the room looked liked the smallest hotel room you can imagine, with the bathrooms and showers being outside of the building. I can already picture waking up at 2 in the morning to go take a leak, walking into the bathroom and seeing a drunk hobo passed out in the corner. GREAT! Were do I sign up ma’am?! Liz did some more searching last night and came across some pretty nice looking places though. Hopefully we can check those out today.

Alright, I’ve got to roll. There’s a farmers market down the street that I want to hit up, but first I need to wake sleeping beauty. She’s been out for 12 hours now (it’s 10:30 in the morning here).

After the farmers market next up on the list of seemingly never-ending things to do - find a job!