night of lights (the intruders part 2)

yawn i'm so tired today people of the web wide world... i didn't sleep a wink (uh okay i don't get that saying at all... don't you have to close both eyes to sleep?) last night.

the events that caused them are more then a little confusing to me... not helping my tiny brain was the fact i was half asleep at the time!

of course as you'll remember people of the innerweb the last time i didn't sleep was when i was visited by the ghost lights with voices!

well they came again last night!!!

there i was minding my own REM business at about midnight when suddenly i was awaken by a light shining through the trees...

fortunately my first instinct of hiding proved to be a wise one (in your face! those of you out there who'd accuse me of cowardice!) as once again the light walked right past my home...

now as i'm sure you probably know i'm terrified of ghosts and all other general spooky things... so this was a little more then traumatic... i stayed out of sight as it went by (though it kinda sounded like it walked by now that i think about it... with what sounded like footsteps?)

unlike last time though somehow i worked up the resolve to follow the light this time and try to get a better look... having wasted the opportunity seconds earlier as it went by... hey you try not be scared of a ghost light when it goes by you!!!

making following the ghost light even scarier was the fact that it was heading down a pathway into the heart of the dell i live in... which also happens to be a maze of doom!.. which both ben the gardener AND agent hamilton from the department of conservation have warned me about!!!

still despite the fact my heart felt like it was going to pound itself out of my chest the whole time, and my limbs were numb with terror i followed the light from a safe distance behind...

after a few minutes i started to wonder... if this was a ghost why was it's light a focused beam that swayed side to side every now and then?

my question was answered all too quickly...

the path that the light had taken led right to the dunedin graveyard!

now i have known for a while that the dunedin botanic garden also contained the graveyard, but not in 65 million years had i ever intended on visiting such a scary place... that alone in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!!

oh man... i don't think i've ever put myself through such a terrifying experience ever!

who know what could jump out of the dark at me?!? ghosts? ghouls? vampires? a lawyer???

zoning me back to the current real horror the ghost light came back into view... moments later a new ghost light appeared not far from it...

though i was far away i could have sworn i heard voices... but i couldn't at this distance make out what they were saying...

i started to move in closer for my better look... why i don't know, but i was so overcome with fear it was like i was almost brave or something...


that'll teach me though... first time i ever try and confront a ghost, and of course it (and well it's partner) turns the table on me...

creeping toward them of course i stepped on a twig... this is what i get for being raised by humans... no jungle stalker skills to speak of...

instantly both ghost lights zoom in on me... i let out a little bit of yell of well pure dread...

as i turn to bolt i could have sworn i heard one of the lights say in a confused and baffled voice "a tyrannosaurus rex?!?"

i may very well have imagined that, cause i don't remember running... all i do know is sometime later i finally came to out of my panic to realize i was hiding under one of the benches on bench hill in the garden...

as i sat going over the frightening series of events in my head through the dark hours of the night i started to calm down... helping this was the realization that after at least an hour after running away i hadn't been followed...

also of help came the realization at sun rise that i'd done the impossible... i'd gone further into the maze, and survived to tell the tale... based on what agent hamilton and especially ben had told me this had never happened before!

so i didn't forget what i'd seen i jotted down this map. the dark green represents the dell and the maze. the trails i have in there at the ones i can see from my home at the entrance to the dell. the medium green is the normal forest of the garden. the dark red is the graveyard.

here i've marked the events of last night... that and my home. so my head marks the spot of my home (if you're ever by the dunedin botanic garden stop in to say hello). the lights passed by there before taking that path you see the light on here. it used that to get to the graveyard of course.

as it was VERY dark at the time, and we t-rexs don't have the best night time vision i'm not sure what else was around this path we took, but i'm pretty sure there were a few sub paths that went off from this one...

based on the fact i made it through in one piece i'm contemplating maybe going back down in the daytime to confirm if there were other paths on this one...

i know that ben and agent hamilton said not too check out the maze, but i made it through this time. and who knows... if i know some hiding places in a maze of doom maybe i can keep away from the ghost lights!

come and C the damage

despite the fact the flood has been over for a little while sadly life hasn't quite settled to that nice stability i'd been enjoying for a few months. the flood left quite a mess through out dunedin including the botanic garden.

there's some good news and some bad news when i got back home after the flood ended on my birthday (of all times for it to end!).

the bad news was that the dell where i live had been pretty thoroughly soaked and boggified.

the good news was that i don't owe a lot of stuff, and what little i did have stayed nice and dry with me at salmond during the flood.

another bit of bad news i'd totally forgotten about, was one of my directives from the department of conservation:

C. Must report to the Department of Conservation

any change in habitat, territory, or ecosystem

within 24 hours of change

though i hadn't given my conservation directives a second thought there was someone else who had...

my attaché with DOC agent hamilton was very eager to checkup on me. especially in light of the flood...

last time she'd visited i didn't quite manage to get on her good side. not that i got on her bad side either... she is just intimidating to be honest, and i had no idea how to make sure she didn't hate me.

i mean after all i can't have the person whose in charge of my living in this country not like me. that'd make life unfun in a hurry... or so i'd think... with my small brain...

agent hamilton showed up in the middle of the afternoon. not a time i would have expected a visit from DOC... which was kind of the idea i think.

during her last visit agent hamilton had insisted on NOT entering the dell due to fears of disturbing my habitat. even though she hadn't seen it she knew exactly where to look for it.

i became aware of something not quite normal when i caught the scent of someone coming down the path (we t-rexs have pretty dare good senses of smell). it's unusual for people to wander into the dell due to the urban legend of the dell being a maze of doom...

man was i surprised when that person wandering in was agent hamilton!

"ah good," said agent hamilton as she walked up to me. "i'm glad you are home mr. tyrannosaur."

"you can call me traumador," i prompted. nobody ever calls me by my last name.

"i wish to inspect the damage caused by the flood," she ignored me.

"well other then a bit of erosion and swampyness everything is pretty much alright," i reported.

"so there have been changes to your territory as a result of the flood," agent hamilton made a note in her book.

"just a few little ones," i wanted to impress her by pointing them out. "like this new little drain creek here, and the bog mud here."

cutting me off though. "mr. tyrannosaur you are aware that you are currently in violation of article C of your conservation directives?" she was clearly unhappy.

"uh no," my heart sank. i thought i'd been doing really good in everything up till now. suddenly i wasn't...

"i'm going to consider this a warning to you mr. tyrannosaur," her voice was icy. "but in the future i highly suggest you reference your directives at least once a week to ensure that you are in compliance with them."

"okay," i sadly replied. so much for the stability of the before. also so much for getting on agent hamilton's good side. this was so getting on her bad side...

"fortunately this incident was a minor violation of article C. in the future event of a similar natural disaster please contact us to alert us of its effecting you. we can not ensure your survival unless we are given adequate information. now let us consider that topic taken care of," she made another note in her book. "i wish to see your habitat. if you could guide me i'd greatly appreciate it."

well okay i thought. maybe this was a chance to redeem myself!

so off we went on a grand tour of my humble jungle like home. the whole while agent hamilton happily wrote down notes in her book... wonder what it says about me?

after the grand 10 minute tour and returning to where we'd started agent hamilton had a few questions.

"so that constitutes your whole range?" she asked.

"what?" i was confused. "i don't have a range. i'm a close proximity predator. constitution? i'm really not following you agent hamilton?"

she paused for a moment. "sorry mr. tyrannosaur. i forgot about your unique cerebral characteristics," she'd lost me again... "was everything you showed me your current territory?"

"oh," i exclaimed. why didn't she just ask that? still not sure what firing ranges and governments have to do with my home? "yeah that's pretty much it."

"i see," she wrote a longish bit to that one. "are you aware of the specific nature of this particular section of the garden?"

"uh maybe?" i replied unsure. i knew lots of things about it, but not "specific" things.

"as the agent in charge of your conservation mr. tyrannosaur i feel it is my duty to alert you to the hazardous nature of this dell system," agent hamilton said in a serious voice, which coming from her was really serious!

"the ghosts?!?" i interrupted. man that night had scared me.

agent hamilton raised her eyebrow. "ghosts?"

i told her the details of my run in with the eerie light and voices. she made several notes in her book.

"i can't verify or comment on this disruption to your lifestyle. i'll have someone from the department look into it," i had clearly thrown her off track. "however back to the subject i was discussing before this... new detail. are you aware of this area being part of "the maze"?"

"hold up, i thought the maze was just a myth?" i tried not to show the fear in my voice. now i'm not saying i didn't believe ben when he told me that story about the dell being some sort of crazy maze that people get lost in. i was just kinda hoping he was pulling my leg or telling a tall tale...

agent hamilton suddenly went slightly stiff in her composure. "officially mr. tyrannosaur there is no evidence to confirm or deny the existence of such a maze," she suddenly drew in closer and lowered her sun glasses. "unofficially you are living in the gateway to a very dangerous patch of forest mr. tyrannosaur."

i suddenly became somewhat alarmed.

"at the same time," agent hamilton seemed to have had a thought. "now that i think about it, i am quite pleased at this choice of habitat."

what?!? how could living on the edge of a maze of doom be a good thing???

"you'll be safe from poachers and hunters in this section," she went on. "that and predators."

i was going to say something, but agent hamilton looked at me squarely. "i assure you both on and off the record this spot is probably the safest for you in dunedin. however ensure you don't wander past your current range... sorry i mean territory."

"if you say so," i hesitantly agreed.

"i do," she jotted down some notes. "i'm concluding this check up. contact me or the department if you experience any problems, and mr. tyrannosaur make sure you follow your directives from now on!"

with that agent hamilton was gone as suddenly as she had appeared...

man this changed my whole day and out look on things.

not only had i made a mess of things with DOC, but the maze i was living beside was known and feared by more then just ben... even the department of conservation was worried about it... if their scared of it then what hope do i have of not being...

mustn't be afraid...

okay people of the innerweb i don't want to sound like i'm going crazy or anything, but i think the botanic garden is haunted...

now before you label me as crazy or scared of the dark (come to think of it i am kinda scared of the dark... i should get a few spot lights today so that i can light up my home tonight!!!) here's what happened...

so like every night i diligently made sure i was home before dark (in addition to being kinda terrified to the max in the lack of light the park isn't lite at night so i'd have to find my way through the scary pitch black). as there's not much to do in the woods at night i went to sleep like every other night... only this wasn't like every other night...

now i can sleep content normally in new zealand as they don't have ANY remotely scary native animals (well out of the water anyway)... little did i know it was habitated by spooks!

at 2am i was awoken by voices. at first in my sleepy daze i thought i was still dreaming... that is till i saw the LIGHT!!!

if you don't believe me just look at this picture!!!!!!

a bright moving light... that made it's way from the dell's entrance towards ben's fabled maze...

while it moved by on the path above me i distinctly heard voices... two of them i think, and though i didn't make out most of what they said to each other (cause they were only close for a second) i could have swore i heard one of them say "otago museum"... which just makes this sounds crazier now that i think about it...

now i'm not making this up people of the web wide world! something really really weird and freaky happened last night! i know you're probably saying that ben's story about the scary maze i supposedly live on the edge of has me rattled... maybe a little... NOW...

i'm serious this wasn't something my peanut sized brain dreamed up (again i have a picture to prove i saw something!). i think there's a cemetery around here somewhere... maybe the ghosts are using the dell as a short cut...

i'm REALLY scared of ghosts... so i hope this is one of those times that i'm wrong (which is fortunately most of the time... except when i predict bad things like this...)

living on the edge

life in dunedin carries on, and so far its good.

now i'm hesitatiant to claim its good. everytime i've said "things are looking better" or "on the up" (since my being laid off by the tyrrell anyways) they've always gone horribly horribly wrong...

i thought today was going to be the start of the downfall of my being in dunedin... force of habit i guess... but it had the setup to be a disaster...

my landlord ben the gardener wanted to meet with me this afternoon to discuss my living in the botanic gardens. when he told me i could move in originally we didn't really have time to go over... well... anything to do with my being a resident in his domain. that and i kinda lied to him and got him to sign a testamonial as to my character...

i was a little worried that ben was going to change his mind and boot me out of the garden...

it was a lovely afternoon when we met in the garden. i noticed ben seemed fairly cheerful, but then again i know people can be friendly and then do something really mean. i tried my best to be nice so that maybe he'd change his mind.


he suggested that we head up and take a seat on bench hill to have our little talk... oh man i thought sitting down. that means this was either going to be long or something "heavy" (hence the need for a sit down)... in either case that meant it was more likely to bad then good...

as we headed up to bench hill ben would stop to check out some of the plants. i wondered why? he informed me that's what being a gardener is all about. keep a close watch on plants and the other things in your garden and make sure that their doing fine.

hmmm big job a gardeners then...

when we got up to bench hill we took a seat, and i braced for the worst...

ben started off by saying "so how are you enjoying living in the gardens so far?"

okay not quite the start to this i was expecting, but i figured it'd get bad sooner then later. "it's pretty cool," i hesitately replied.

"good," ben went on. "i just wanted to check in to make sure you're first month has gone smoothly. i haven't had a lot of time to catch up with you since you moved in."

"no everything is fine," i sorta lied. not to say that wasn't the truth people of the world wide web, but talking to ben wasn't exactly fun. i didn't want to have to find another home already...

"splendid," ben said as he stood up. "i was worried you were going to need something or want to move out." he laughed "i know these gardens can be a tad bit crowded at times. i frankly thought you might want to leave and find a less busy place to live."

wait what? i thought. this wasn't what i thought it was at all... oh man...

things haven't been going my way for so long people of the innerweb (since i started this blog basically) that i've become used to them going wrong. i really need to watch that i don't fall into negative thinking...

"i've been feeling a little bad not having caught up with you since you moved in. i kinda like the idea of my garden having a dinosaur living in it," ben chuckled. "i was worried you'd already left. i haven't seen you around at all. where did you end up settling in the garden?"

"the dell," i answered.

"really!" bens face suddenly became serious. oh great right when i started to try and think positive he gets all mad...

"well that explains why you haven't noticed the crowds," he seemed to note out loud. "look traumador that is a very nice area, and i don't mind you living there, but i need to warn you."

ben looked a little troubled. "whatever you do don't venture beyond the dell. otherwise you'll be entering the maze," he tensened. "i don't normally like to talk about as it might encourage people to see it, but i figure i need to warn you about it."

"oh i know about the maze," i interupted. i'd heard about it in my initial explorations of dunedin. "supposedly nobodies ever found the end of it, and some have never come back."

ben looked on kinda impressed.

"i know it's just a story, and that it isn't real," i told him confidently. "you're secret is safe with me."

suddenly ben leaned in closer and lowered his voice "you misunderstand me my little friend," his voice had a urgency about it. "the maze is no mere myth. many who have set out to find its secrets have never returned. i myself have never wandered into its enigma."

okay i knew he had to be pulling my leg now. "yeah okay you fooled me," i jested back. ben didn't flinch or move. "you're the head gardener, you'd have to know every little spec of this place by heart by now."

he just looked at me his eyes never moving. "you don't understand traumador," his voice was like out of a scary movie. "this is no ordinary maze or trail. once you enter the dell that forest ceases to be of this world. it is that of some other."

okay i was starting to get a little freaked out...

"me and my crew never cut through that section of the woods. if you do you never come back," he came in closer to me. "whatever you do, if you find yourself in the maze for some reason don't ever step off the path. or you won't come back either..."

now i was totally freaked out. i promised to not go into the maze which caused ben to calm back down into his nice cheerful self. he said he didn't mean to panic me, and took me down to the cafe by the duck pond for a coffee to ease my mind... it was a nice ending to that somewhat stressful conversation...

had i made a bad desicion? i wondered. wanting to stay in the gardens now? i came worried i was going to be kicked out, but now i was worried about staying...

i'll just have to make sure i don't go into the maze...

fool around in april

just when i thought things would be settling in to a sort of normal state the unthinkable has happened!

so there i was walking beside a nuclear reactor when all of a sudden BOOM!!!

the stupid thing exploded! bombarding me with all sorts of rays and radiation. for the first few minutes i felt fine...

suddenly i could feel my body getting bigger and my DNA changing inside me. next thing i knew...

i'd transformed into the giantnormous mutant monster

TRAUMZILLA!!!

destroyer of man, consumer of forests, and scourge of society!

_

my first rampage was through the patch of largest trees in all of DUNEDIN!!!

_

_

_

april fools!

_

man you'd be kinda stupid (more so then even me!) to have fallen for that one. it's just a funny picture i took using perspective... or no... come to think of it i think craig said prospecting (though not sure what looking for fossils or gold has to do with pictures?)... anyways that tree is like a million times bigger then me in real life.

_

as much fun as it would be to be that tall and scary i'm still sadly the smallest t-rex you ever did see!

_
boy oh boy people of the innerweb, it sure is nice to have free time to pull jokes like that. it's even a bigger relief to have completed the criteria set out for me by the government. now that i've survived the countdown of doom with all its nonsense it is nice to be able to just write a NORMAL blog entry for a change...
_
so what have i been up to now that i'm a legal extracontinental organism of new zealand. well first thing was first. i needed to move into my new home...

that is now here: the dunedin botanic garden!

still can't believe my luck on this one! it may not be a paradise for us none-extinct dinosaurs like the tyrrell, but hey that didn't quite hold up anyway.

if you're into the outdoors, forest, and having a lot of people over then i have the best home ever. it's bigger then even a mansion! ten square kilometers or so i've heard...

this particular view is the living room i've decided. it is very nice, and has a great view. however it has next to no good shelter, and is packed with visitors all the time. i don't want people going through my stuff or wandering into my room.

so yeah this will be staying my living room for now.

so the question became where do i find my room?

well unlike other people's homes mine has signs directing you to all the different places located within. (also shows how much bigger my home is due to it's need for signs... kinda a nice nostalgia factor too. the tyrrell used to have signs all over the place in it...)

i opted to check out the higher ground where less people tended to wander. on the signs were a bunch of "dells" which i'd never checked out (and i was curious about. i've never seen computers grow in the wild...)

as i wandered it looked a little less then promising though. there was a really groomed and stepped hill, but it was even worse for shelter then the living room. it can rain a LOT in dunedin...

that all changed the instant that i hit the entrance to the "rhodoendron" "dell". wow what a cool mysterious jungly entry tunnel into the wild...

i had to check this out.

seeing the jungleness of the place something deep within me stirred with excitement... was this something to do with my tyrannosaur instincts? ever since my quest into BC i've found i like forests... especially when i was on the run after the eco-center incident. i rather enjoyed that night out in the forest...

it somehow felt right. my being here in this spot i mean. like i was supposed to be in such surroundings...

even more interesting was the pathway that started in the middle of the dell. according to local legend the end(s) of this trail are unknown, and it is something of a maze throughout the more deep parts of garden, and that none who has ever ventured in has ever returned... having seen the end anyways.

now at first i wasn't too sure what to make of this story...

heading down the trail just a little though i began to see a bit of the weirdness. with seemingly no reason the path suddenly arched up about the dell and up onto one of the surrounding hills, but ALSO kept going through the heart of the dell...

weird...

i'm going to have to look into this maze thing later...

for now i've found what i was looking for... off the path in the forest i found this nice little isolated spot. with nice tree and fern cover, a soft fungus floor, and most important in the middle of the wild. next to no sign of humans in here...

home sweet home!

all i have to do is make it a little more lived in, but i think this will be a perfect base from which to start my new life people of the innerweb...