28th December - Dunedin

Changeable is the only word to describe today's weather - a bit like Rob's mood, which faithfully mirrored it. Sun shone? Mood went up. Sun went in? Mood went down! So we did things that weren't affected by the weather (apart from lots of washing) like going to the museum (free - mood went up!), where I saw a woolpack like the one in Ngaio Marsh's Died in the Wool, so now when I re-read that, I'll know what it looked like. Plus lots of skeletons, Maori history and an exhibition of motor cycles from 1910 to the present day - the first ones were exactly like push bikes!
The sun came out later, and we went to the Botanic Gardens (free!) and round the aviaries there. Saw a Tui in the wild - actually, we heard it first: its call is exactly like its name - so that's another bird for me. The gardens are lovely, with a glass house full of orchids, some of which looked like they were only two steps away from appearing in a Doctor Who episode. As something scary. And cacti featuring the Fibonacci sequence quite obviously - Rob photographed those for his Fibonacci collection. Whatever that is...

We also found a second-hand bookshop - a proper one, with shelves everywhere, probably extending into L-space - and stocked up on text - most of which we're going to have to dump before we fly back up to Auckland because of internal flight weight restrictions. I'll try and keep the Erle Stanley Gardner for Sammie to read though - she likes Perry Mason.
Evening, we went for a walk and saw two fantails really close to, flirting their tails at us for ages. The street we're on is quite flat, but every single side road off it is just like Church Bank. The architecture's fascinating, and I want a book about it! Must go back to the bookshop...
The rest of the evening was just like being at home - we borrowed a silly DVD from the reception here, and did the ironing to it. Very relaxing.