Dunedin: Otago Settlers Museum

Before we left Dunedin, we popped into the Otago Settlers Museum so I could check out the exhibit on the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, the world-famous one where they are still tracking people from the 1970s and using that data for all kinds of research into human behavior and health. Less than 50% of them still live in the area, so they pay to fly them back every few years to gather samples and data -- gets quite expensive! Here are some of the interesting tidbits I learned:

 

Had to capture this comment on someone's fav decade - the 70s were the grooviest era!!

The automotive section had some cool vehicles as well. But the coolest thing had to be the nondescript parking ticket dispenser that had been converted into a poem generator. We thought that was the coolest thing ever and ended up getting a couple to take home. 

Melbourne: Book Sales and State Library

It turned out to be a book day in Melbourne, and thankfully we anticipated buying some books on the trip, so we were able to take advantage of it. We happened to see on an academic organization’s social media post that there was a used book sale by the Royal Historical Society of Melbourne happening just a few blocks from our apartment, so we couldn’t resist (though books are so heavy!). We found a couple good ones, then went to the Book Grocer clearance book store we had seen earlier in the week to find some $6 brand-new books. What a deal! I had to carry the latter ones around the rest of the day, but they were worth it. Despite some of the dire predictions a few years back, I don’t think books are ever going to go away, even with digital. You just can’t browse digital in the same way, and lots of us prefer hard copies.

Yay book sale!

Next was the State Library where there was a protest going on in front about letting in more refugees/closing the offshore processing centers. You aren’t going to find that kind of agitation too often in Christchurch (or New Zealand for that matter). We went through the exhibits on the history of books and some old ones from their collections. I had no idea there were so many copies of Alice in Wonderland in so many languages! There was also an exhibit on the more traditional history of Melbourne’s founding. Pretty much the history of men doing things. The library has a beautiful, uniquely shaped reading room.

miniature books were popular at one point

stained glass Shakespeare

We then stopped into a three-story game store and tested out the Wii U and reminisced at the little display on the history of Nintendo game consoles. Technology can sure do a good job at making you feel dated.

From there we walked to get some of the doughnuts from Doughnut Time, even though they were such tourist prices ($6 for regular and more for the filled ones!). They market themselves though with all of the colorful candy and toppings. We lazed out on dinner for our last night and just got fast food.

pizza, Mr. Burger's chicken ranch burger

chocolate doughnut with cookie dough, gluten-free mint doughnut

Luna Park

We stayed in Sydney for another week because of a conference. It's a good city to hang out in, definitely, and easy to get around because of the good public transportation. We saw Star Wars again in IMAX (world's biggest screen, couldn't resist) and went to the Museum of Sydney's Lego exhibit which was cool. We hadn't heard of Luna Park before seeing it recreated in Lego and decided to check it out on a later day. It is an amusement park on the other side of the harbor that has gone through all kinds of struggles and shut downs before being opened again due to popular support. 

We went to an opal shop that had a little museum area with lots of beautiful opals that have been discovered in Australia to redeem the 'free gift' coupon in one of the tourism books in the hotel, and sure enough, they took one look at our age and backpacks and ignored us (besides one offhand comment about our backpacks), even though I was interested in buying something. Loss for them. The guy behind the counter was so clearly not wanting to help us and just pulled out the lapel pins and was done. I find it really frustrating how people judge others -- especially in these kinds of stores -- based on what they look like. That's why we young people like to shop online!! They'll all be out of business likely anyway, so they can go on being rude if they want. I still got something free out of the deal.