I slept fairly well last night with the electric blanket on low. It is starting to get cold down here in the south and the morning frost is starting to appear. I forget sometimes that things are flipped... that it gets warmer as you go north! Here we are closer to Antarctica and its icy seas.

After our usual large and yummy breakfast, we drove out to the trailhead for Flagstaff hill. Brian had brought a book with him and waited in the car, while Judy and I made the hike to the top. The weather was absolutely gorgeous... sunny and yet with a light cool breeze.

Looking back toward the central Otago. The trail was lined with tall tussock (the hair-like grass) and flax (giant plants up to 10 feet tall).

A helicopter kept flying back and forth. At the bottom of the trail had been a notice saying they were doing aerial spraying but we weren't sure for what.

This one looked more like it was dumping rather than spraying.

It was quite a nice, well-maintained path. At the top, we sat on a bench for a bit and admired the scenery. We had a lovely view of the peninsula and central Otago.

The view from the top

Downtown Dunedin

Looking out over the southwest Pacific

We found our marker!

We found another one too that listed all the mountains we could see.

The lovely fall color was beginning to show.

Someone had weaved a basket into the living flax. Judy and I added the rocks (a basket is meant to hold something, right?).

Snowberry

We got back to the car in just over an hour. My ankle feels like it has completely healed. My camera wasn't so lucky. The screen protector finally lost its cling. I took a bit of time trying to fix up my equipment. Brian gave me some tape to repair the screen protector and I used scissors to trim the fraying edges. Lunch was a treat, with eggplant and chickpeas and homemade bread... and another Emerson's beer.

My "quick fix repair" of my big camera (the Canon T3i). I protect my cameras using gaffer's tape and screen protectors. Unfortunately time and extreme wear take their toll and eventually have to be completely redone.

Wow! Absolutely delicious!

A lovely, not overly hopped, amber beer

Afterwards, I wandered around their extensive garden. I had such a fun time! This is one of my favorite past times... hunting down random bugs (who would much prefer to be left alone) on flowers with a camera. The roses smelled wonderful!

When there weren't bugs, I made due with just flowers.

And when there weren't flowers, I found other lovely things.

My room with the stellar view

Brian then dropped Judy and me off at the Dunedin Botanic Garden while he went to deal with the rear tail light (the bulb he bought didn't seem to fit so he was just going to swing by his mechanic who usually didn't charge him for such small things). We started in the aviary, then meandered through the Mediterranean garden, passing by the giant Lebanon cedars, and then ending in the Southern Africa section. The gardens were beautiful and extensive... but Judy's flowers were nicer.

A music shell with a pair of traditional Bavarian towers, a Peter Pan statue, and a couple with their "pet" duck.. or at least it acted like it. That's the small lump sleeping peacefully just a few feet in front of from them.

A mouse on the statue

"The Royal Oak" was planted to commemorate the marriage of the prince and princess of Wales in 1863.

The aviary was quite large, with many different buildings.

Unfortunately due to the narrow metal grating, it was very hard to get a picture of anything... such as of these Black-hooded Siskin finches.

Sid always had one feisty comment or another!

The Mediterranean garden wasn't labeled as well as most other things. Perhaps it was still getting established since it was only started at the end of 2010.

A Smoke tree (or Venetian sumac or wig tree)...

... and its "smoke"

One of the many exotic looking plants of the Southern Africa section

Fynbos (meaning "fine-leaved plants") is the smallest but richest in number of species of the world's six floral kingdoms. It is found in a very small corner of South Africa.

After about an hour, we met Brian at the upper parking lot. The weather was already starting to turn on the drive home, so we decided to make a quiet evening of it. I was served an appetizer of cheese with an Emerson's Pilsner. Dinner was an incredible dish of potatoes, cheese, brocolli, and garden carrots. Dessert was two types of frozen yogurt (apricot and passion fruit) over fruit AND a spectacular home-made Austrian-style cake with jam and chocolate.

The weather moves in.

It doesn't get a whole lot better than this!

Words can simply not describe what the tastebuds experienced!

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