Otepoti

After a 10 day stint in the A & E (accident and emergency) department, I was granted a few days for good behavior and we headed to Dunedin for the weekend, about 2 hours to the northeast. Otepoti is the Maori name, while Dunedin derives from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh. This is the second largest city of the South Island with a whopping 116,000 people (21% of whom are students). Nevertheless, it is civilized. We found both Starbucks as well as the Cadbury chocolate factory. (Speight’s brewery is also here, but I was not permitted to take that tour).

On the way from Invercargill, we once again saw more sheep than we could have imagined possible. They are literally everywhere (including the empty field across the street from the hospital).

They are very sensitive about sheep jokes here and there is a government website that debunks the myth (#8) that there are 3 million people and 60 million sheep. At population.govt.nz they note, for the record, that there are four million people and only forty million sheep. This means that the sheep to person ratio has literally halved over the last 20 years (down from a peak of 22 sheep/person in 1982).

You would think that with all of these sheep, mutton would be a staple and the least expensive food item. However, it is sold at prices dictated by the world market and so is not as inexpensive as one would think. (New Zealand has cornered 50% of the world market on sheepmeat). However, should the itch strike, you can get a Lamburger at McDonald’s.

Here are a couple more. This time to the west of Invercargill:

Note the threatening rain clouds. There will be a later post on this theme. (It is raining even as I post this).

Also, these sheep are not hanging out on green shag carpet, although the fields looks more like astroturf than pasturage.

Again, note the color of the sky. However, on the way to Otepoti, we had a beautiful (if chilly) day. So if you are not bored with pictures of grass, here is another one:

Well, I would post more about the trip to Dunedin but simply loading these grass and sheep pictures took an hour thanks to the internet “speed” (another later post).