The Book of Ashes

Hanging out in Dunedin, visiting the chocolate factory. 2:34AM

There I walk, down the street wearing my jersey and my beanie, a typical looking student on his way to uni on a cool day. My past life is almost forgotten, a few fading memories of Wellington streets and familar faces. I could so easily just stay here, blend in, become one with the place. But really there is nothing here for me anymore.

Back to Friday. After my last diary entry I went to the museum. I never went the whole time I was here. Its funny how you do everything after you've lived somewhere but not while you're there. I've didn't do much while I was here. At the musuem it felt like I was in the year 3000 and humanity had solved all its problems. I had no worries in life and could just wonder about, learning things and discovering how interesting our past was. It was cool. After I headed home for drinks with the guys. It ended up being me, Eddie, Duncan, Nick, Jeff (all Eddies flatmates) and two of their friends, Kyla & Alexandra. Quickly we consumed much beer then headed out. Town was cool but so not my scene anymore. So many young people that don't even interest me and so packed in some places. Still we had an excellent time coming home sometime after 4am.

Saturday I went and found a vodafone store to recharge my cell phone as it had gone flat (on the ferry ride over!). They were pretty cool about it. While it was getting recharged I took a walk around town to revist the shops. Dunedin is small now. Most shops are only 1 or 2 stories high. Its funny. That night we went out again. I was quite hung over but still got back into it. Was another good night out. Gave Bev & Jo a call to congratulate them on getting engaged. They were having a party that night to celebrate.

Sunday was recovery day. After a good sleep in we headed to the beach for a bit of hacky and touch. The touch almost killed me. The beaches here are nice altho the weather wasn't so good. We went for a drive up to the look out which provided a most excellent view of the city then it was back home to watch tv and relax.

Today is Monday. I went on the Cadbury's tour this morning with Sophie. It was pretty cool. We got a few free samples and got to check out where and how they make everything. I was quite impressed to see they had machines that did virtually everything from making easter eggs to wrapping and packing stuff in boxes. It also reminded me of Charlie and the chocolate factory. As I walked along at the back of the line I thought how easy it would be to sneak off down one of the coridoors where I might open a room and find the machine that made everlasting gobstoppers! They actually had coloured pipes here that piped liquid chocolate around to different areas of the factory and the highlight was in an old silo where they dumped a tonne of chocolate down the middle to produce a chocolate water fall... very, very cool. It reminded me of Noels house party. Now I'm cruising. Not sure when I'm going to Queenstown yet. It was hailing earlier today and is meant to be snowing. I don't know if I want to be hitching in weather like that