Oamaru and Lake Tekapo
Hello blog!
This post is dedicated to an update on my weekend, which brought a much needed break after the intense backpacking experience I had last week.
Friday marks the start of my weekend and, per usual, it was raining in Dunedin so I had a pretty lowkey day. However, it was our friend Sophia’s birthday and we all went over to her flat for some festivities on Friday night. Sophia lives in 809B so it was only a 15 meter walk from her flat to ours (godbless) and she had invited most of our complex as well. The only bad part of the night was losing King’s Cup and having to drink the awful concoction of beer, red wine and vodka from the center cup as punishment (absolutely disgusting - would NOT recommend). We left Sophia’s party at midnight and came back to our flat to find Aliyah and Nicky watching A Cinderella Story, which is an all time classic!! Shout out to Austin Aimes for being my childhood heartthrob <3
On Saturday morning, I woke up early because I had to be on campus at 9:30am for my class field trip! My favorite class, the Global Politics of Food, had organized a class trip out to Oamaru for the day and my friend Lena and I had planned to drive together. We also planned to leave from the field trip and travel north to see Lake Tekapo before heading home. What a great day right?!
All of the people attending the field trip met together at 9:30am to leave at the same time. Hugh, our professor, lead the pilgrimage to Oamaru and it took us about an hour to get there. We arrived at Totaro Estate in Oamaru at 10:45am for our tour. Totaro Estate is an old farm credited with cultivating the meat carried overseas on the first refrigerated meat ship called 'The Dunedin'. The farm used to slaughter more than 200 sheep a day! Throughout the tour we were able to pet and feed some friendly sheep, see the old barns and walk through the old slaughterhouse. The slaughterhouse tour was wild; they had these weird fake carcasses hanging from the ceiling and sounds of bleating sheep playing from speakers throughout the room. They also had recordings of men saying things like, “The smell is so bad!” and “Only 150 more sheep to kill today!” It was very odd.
Only in New Zealand will you find a farm museum dedicated to the phenomenon of sheep slaughtering.
After the tour of Totaro Estate, we traveled to a nice german cafe for lunch and coffee. Our Professor was on a first name basis with the owners of this place and he HIGHLY recommended the authentic german cakes for sale at the counter. For lunch I ordered tomato soup with apple-strudel for dessert. It was delicious! Everyone enjoyed their lunches while we listened to Hugh talk about the Food from Somewhere Regime and the importance of closing the distance between consumers and producers of food. For example, the german family who owns the cafe produces all of the ingredients for their restaurant on their farm which is only a couple kilometers away. They were a great example of how easy it is to support local businesses and build relationships with the producers of your food.
When lunch had wrapped up, Lena and I hopped back into her car and headed to Lake Tekapo. It was a 2 hour drive from Oamaru to Tekapo and Lena’s car had no radio or aux chord, so we chatted about every topic under the sun. We arrived at Lake Tekapo at around 3:45pm and it was absolutely stunning! It was so random; you’re driving in this vast valley with mountains on either side and suddenly there’s a giant turquoise lake! The color of the water was a breathtaking shade of blue and it was a perfect place to stop and take photos of the scenery.
We stayed at Lake Tekapo for 45 minutes, just taking pictures, looking around and getting coffee for the ride home. We decided to take a different and slightly longer drive home because we wanted a change of scenery.
The journey home was just as beautiful as the journey to Lake Tekapo. We passed multiple turquoise lakes on our drive back and obviously, we stopped for photoshoots there as well. The drive from Tekapo took 3 and a half hours and Me and Lena continued our talk about everything and anything on the way. I practically shared my entire life story and she did vice versa. Harriet the Chariot, Lena’s car, brought us back to Dunedin at 8 o’clock ish. For dinner, I ate a veggie burger topped with feta cheese and a side of brussel sprouts :)
Sunday was dedicated to rest and homework. Nothing eventful happened throughout the day, but our whole flat went to dinner together at Buddha Stix! I had pad thai with tofu and some red wine (it was yummmmy).
Overall it was a fantastic weekend. I got to attend a lovely class field trip, see a cool farm, travel to the beautiful Lake Tekapo, talk for hours with a friend, and eat delicious food. Boy am I a luck gal!
Thanks for reading :)
