a new look...

it was a fun outing while it lasted, after the rather long museum quest and my work trip to australia, but finally i've made it home to dunedin...
_
not that i'll be staying long. i have a flight in a couple days to catch... back home. back to canada.


though i have to say people of the innerweb i'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. my emotions are all over the map. on the one hand i'm very excited. it'll be awesome to see everyone and the tyrrell museum again. on the other hand it might not be all fun and games.


the last time i went back home after being fired from the museum was not such a fun experience. not that this time will be the same. i've made a new life for myself down here in new zealand. i'll be going back to drum as my own dinosaur. i won't need anything from there anymore.


what has me the most uneasy about the trip is the fact that the purchaser of this hatching day present is still a mystery. i have no clue who thought flying me home would be a good present. it sounds great at first, but i have made a few enemies in recent time (in particular the pack of the primordial feather) so getting brought back into the middle of dinosaur packed alberta might be some sort of trap.


i'm trying to keep optimistic though. it would seem to me that the pack could plan something a whole lot simpler than flying me halfway around the world. larry came to me afterall. i'm pretty sure if the pack wanted to do something they'd have done it by now...
_
that and despite the way things ended at the tyrrell, i DO have a lot of friends back in drumheller. i'm hoping it was one of them. two years is a long time, and i'm sure many of them miss me as much as i miss them!


so i'm trying to stay upbeat and positive about the trip as i can.


i'm also wanting to impress everyone with the new and improved me... not that i know how to do that. or if i really am new and improved. they just say it on commericals alot, and it makes the stuff sound really cool.


so if i want to impress people i have to look my best. one thing i realized was that i haven't EVER washed my old tyrrell staff uniform... if i was going to impress i was going to have to change that.

so i went to a laundry mat... which isn't the best name. its hardly a flat thing in front of a door welcoming you in. its more of a room full of washing machines. maybe i missed the mat when i came in.

anyways as it is the only piece of clothing i owe i took off my uniform and put it carefully in the machine.

its been a long while since i haven't worn any clothes, like since i was a hatchling long while! though it felt a little weird, at the same time it felt kinda natural. i guess i still do have some tyrannosaurian instincts left in me. afterall we kings of the cretaceous never would have worn a staff shirt while stalking the prehistoric landscape.

man do these things take a while though. i had no idea you had to wait this long... kinda glad i hadn't washed my shirt before. think of all the time i'd waste if i did it all the time!

when the machine finally came to a finish i was in for a very big surprise... or more like a real small one!

the STUPID washing machine had somehow shrunk my staff shirt!!!

oh no!

for a few minutes i was really upset and alarmed. how was i going to look my best in a smaller shirt?

than it occurred to me as i moved around with ease in my sized clothing. it was perfect fit!

forever now i'd been wearing a shirt that was a million sizes too big for it. the sleeves in particular. though supposedly a short sleeve for a human, they were way too big for me! now suddenly i had a true short sleeved shirt. short for even a t-rex.

you know i couldn't look much smarter for my return home. with a shirt that looks like a real shirt. the funny part all i needed to not know how to do was use a laundry machine!

gunning for success (museum quest part 3)

Location: Dunedin

Baskets Left: 3

alright so ms. rhonwyn has given me three rather uninteresting seeming baskets, and the task of ditching them (though she doesn't state how i'm supposed to do that exactly?). the up side? i have to do this task all across new zealand!!!

though sadly my first stop was not such new ground or anything i hadn't seen before...

rather it takes me back to my first arriving here in dunedin...

to the albatross colony at taiaroa head. last time i was here, it was to see the giant northern royal albatross, this time ms. rhonwyn wants me to check out the "disappearing gun" and former maori pā. i really wish she hadn't used so many untranslated maori words... and how i was going to find a vanishing weapon i wasn't sure...

first thing was first. the ticket she gave me was for not only a tour of the gun, but also a look at the albatross. incidentally the albatross were the first thing i was going to have to see, and i wasn't complaining!

as we wandered up the hill i remembered my first visit here almost a year ago (man has it been that long people of the innerweb?). that was during the whole countdown of doom where the government was going to deport me unless i met their criteria. i'd tried to live out here on the peninsula and get a job here at the albatross colony. that of course didn't work out so well.

i was real excited though. the last time i'd been here it wasn't the ideal albatross watching day. today on the other hand it was windy as, and kinda blah out. perfect for albatross!

their so big and heavy they can't fly under their power. if the wind is heavy though they'd be out and about. so i kept my claws crossed...

as this is the ONLY mainland nesting site of albatross in the world the department of conservation keep the place really secure. as a security guard... er i guess former security guard!... i can appreciate their stance. that and knowing the department first hand i know they mean business!

as the tour group i was with cleared the barb wired, pass coded, tall fences i wondered if this added security was part of why ms. rhonwyn wanted me to try and get rid of the baskets here...

wait what if this worked? what if i lost ALL the baskets here today?!? would i still get to travel across new zealand?!?!?

i stewed on that till we got up to the albatross viewing hide. than my mind wandered onto the incredible sight before me (if only these were wandering albatross than i'd have made an awesome pun there!).


the albatross were indeed out and about flying. in fact there were three of them, and all they did was fly around the hide in circles. meaning the whole time there were albatrosses flying by!


that's a pretty uncommon sight at the observatory most of the time. sure you'd see a bird or two fly while you're there, but to have them non stop flying around needs the right conditions.


first it needs to be windy. being the headland out to open ocean not as hard as it might be else where. however the time of year is the other factor.


you see it's the beginning of albatross mating season. the three birds doing the loop around the hill were teenagers looking to impress prospective mates... i can kind of sympathize. having had my shots are trying to impress females it's not easy!

it was an awesome 25 minutes though. these birds are among the most impressive and majestic i've ever seen. good to see we coelurosaurs didn't lose our flare for evolutionary show man ship.

to give you an idea of scale in this picture that albatross is BEHIND that fence. had i taken the picture a moment earlier the albatross would have been behind it to really show that off. it should be noted that's a 3 metre high fence!

the time just flew by (there's my working albatross pun!) and it was time to move onto my assigned task. the disappearing gun.

i couldn't help as we made our to the opposite end of the hill that the security was still in place (though the fences weren't as high as the 3m one lining the albatrosses area).


we approached a creepy old bunker looking tunnel. the tour guide welcomed us to the disappearing gun tour, and i noted immediately it was well named. there was no gun to be seen.

the guide informed us that we were going to proceed into the tunnel, and onto check out the gun.


though the tunnel was a very cool movie like place, i admit i was feeling a little too chicken to proceed inward. normally i'd have loved too. however after all the recent creepiness, most notable the ghost i ran into at the cemetery and the noises in the museum when this whole basket business began, i'm still a little jittery when it comes to potential scariness i guess...

inward the tour went though. was i going to chicken out completely, and fail my first big museum role ever?

taking one look back at the safety of the sunlight world i swallowed my fear (as best i could), and push on after the tour group...

as we walked the guide informed us that this was a defensive fort built in the 1890's to defend new zealand against feared russian invasion. wow before they were even soviet than!

our first stop was the observation/lookout station of the fort. from here soldiers were ever on the look out for hostile warships... kinda like a real world game of battleship.

from here you could also see one of taiaroa head's main landmarks, the lighthouse.

this we were informed was just the surface level of the fort though, and that what we'd come to see was in the bowels of the place...

i thought those first tunnels were freaky, this lower level was even... uh "better".

the trip was worthwhile, as i learned what the disappearing gun was though. so the kiwi's were scared of the proto soviets so much so they decided they needed to have a big weapon to fend them off.

as deathstars hadn't been invented yet they settled for a... well if you ask me... pretty small weapon. an anti-ship cannon that they made stealthy.

oh okay cloaking technology i thought that explains the lack of mega size! turns out no.

they put the this gun in a trench on the top of the hill. building a spring contraption to lift the gun out of the hole when they shot it it'd spring back into it's hidy hole. meaning the enemy ship wouldn't really see it, and be able to fire back at it.

okay might not be future tech cool, but i have to admit very clever. i'd never have thought of that!

i also might have been a little hasty in saying it was a tiny weapon. getting face to face with it i admit it's a pretty big gun... not quite deathstar big mind you... but i'm travelling around new zealand not a small moon!

wait i was at the disappearing gun... ms. rhonwyn had told me to make sure i got the baskets here, but how do i get rid of them.

the tour guide talked a bit more about the history of the gun. suddenly i realized maybe what ms. rhonwyn meant by the baskets "leaving" was that the tour guides i ran into would make them leave.

"uh excuse me," i asked the guide in a lull in his spiel.

"yes," he cheerfully responded expecting me to ask a question. i simply held up the baskets.

"uh those are nice sir," the guide hesitantly responded clearly VERY confused by my action.

what that didn't make any sense? why didn't he take them i thought. than it hit me.

disappearing gun and maori pā. ms. rhonwyn hadn't been talking in maori. she was using code! cause there hadn't been anything about the maori yet on the tour... if i said that phrase than the guide would know what to do... clever ms. rhonwyn!

"what about if i said maori pā?" i sleekly mentioned.

"oh i follow you now sir," the guide smiled. "sorry i haven't dealt with a dinosaur before."

finally i thought!

"this whole area was indeed once a maori fortress too," the guide entered a new spiel... wait about what i'd asked him, and he wasn't taking the baskets! "much like the europeans, or pākehā as the maori called them, they established a fortification here in tribal times because it was easy to defend and observe enemies approach. it also incidentally was ideal for an unexpected reason. as maori would use the bones of their enemies to craft weapons, the tribe who set up their pā here had an excellent way of disposing their dead so their enemies couldn't get the bones. they'd just throw them over the cliff."

okay again. not what i was expecting at all... informative for sure. in fact cool facts. yet i still have these baskets.

how do i get rid of them if the guides aren't going to take them... who is it than?

the tour wrapped up with a tour of the old barracks with some very realistic manikins filling in for the soldier who once bustled around this place.

a quick peek down into the ammunition magazine was the last look around the disappearing gun. i definitely enjoyed seeing this new sorta museum i was at a bit of a loss on my task...

unlike the disappearing gun the baskets weren't disappearing, and ms. rhonwyn's note wasn't giving me a hint on how to get that done...

to be continued...

shake up (museum quest part 0)

well things have been exciting here in dunedin the last day or so...

being a minor geology fan (though to be honest mostly just sedimentary geology) i've had a new and kinda fun rock related experience...

so there i was patrolling, as we security guards do, the lobby of the otago museum...

when suddenly the whole world started wobbling!

i'm serious everything including me start to shake like crazy!

by george... not sure what that means? other than they say it movies a lot when weird stuff happens... i thought, i think i'm in the middle of my first earthquake!

see new zealand pretty much as a country is the geologic battle ground for two major tectonic plates. the pacific plate is going under, or subducting for you scientific types, the indo-australian plate. this means that a few kilometres under new zealand a lot of potential energy builds up, and occasionally gets released in the form of one of these fun quakes.

it also makes both islands powder kegs of possible volcanism... fortunately (and i guess a little unfortunately) not the geologic phenomenon i'm experiencing today...

just being from landlocked alberta, which is situated on the border of a LONG dead plate boundary in the rockies, i've never felt an earthquake before.

the odd thing though, listening to the news on the radio, this at moment wasn't a normal earthquake....

not because dunedin doesn't get earthquakes... far from it. part of the fault line runs RIGHT through the city.

rather it wasn't picked up or felt anywhere but here in dunedin... which is really weird!

earthquakes should spread their energy out a long ways till it runs out. this one was perfectly localized. it's got everyone, especially the countries geologists, a little confused.

i personally think it's kinda a cool unusual event. unlike the other one i had earlier this week this particular phenomenon was both fun to be in (kinda like an amusement park ride!), scientifically explainable, and most importantly neither scary nor DEAD!

i'll keep you posted on what they find out about this weird quake.

dunedin caught unprepared (the visitor part 5)

i've only endured a small portion of my cousin larry's unannounced 2 week visit, and already i'm nearly at my limit...


not only has larry been he's usual JERK! self and almost gotten me kicked out of my home and all of new zealand, but he's managed to turn the tables on me everytime i try to push him on why he is here in the first place!

as if that weren't enough now larry has insisted that we check out town.

even without larry i never wandered around dunedin. the reason being why i moved here. they don't have any dinosaurs down here on the south island of new zealand, and as of such the locals just aren't ready for a dinosaur walking down the street. that's tiny small than a human me i'm talking about! i've gotten plenty of uncomfortable and scared looks from dunedinites.


i just couldn't imagine what the reaction to larry was going to be!?!

never the less larry was insistent. as we left the botanic garden larry got impatient with my inability to keep up with him... which is yet another example of what a JERK! he can be. i barely clear larry's ankle (on a t-rex the ankle is way higher up. looks like a reverse knee) so him expecting me to keep running along side him was just not going to happen.

larry made a most unexpected offer though. i thought he was just going to ignore my problem, and expect me to keep up. instead he stopped and offered for me to hop up on his back... had my waking him up so early in the morning caused a personality change?

with me up on his shoulder larry set off towards downtown dunedin. being a full grown t-rex larry had to walk on the road rather than the sidewalk, making us all the more conspicuous.

well if the people of dunedin hadn't seen a tyrannosaur before than it's safe to say after today many of them have. the reactions varied between dumbfound shock, wonderment, or the most common panic, freight, and a LOT of screaming!


back in drumheller people were a lot more used to having dinosaurs around town, but then again that's what drum was famous for. you'd still have tourists through town that would react to us, but it wasn't every single person on the street... unlike here.

the worst part of this field trip with larry was intersections. if the people of dunedin didn't know anything about t-rexs, than larry didn't know anything about the rules of the road. the traffic problems he'd cause just by walking through red lights or onto the wrong side of the road were scary!

i let out a scream as we walked onto george street, the major thoroughfare of dunedin, as 4 lanes of oncoming traffic barely screech to a halt. oh man that was close. despite what movies show even a full grown t-rex could get seriously hurt or even killed by a full on collision with a car (granted the car would probably take it worse!).

"you disapprove of something cousin," larry noted moments after my scream, breaking the total silence of the walk.

"it's just," i hesitate. i don't want to make larry mad. falling off his back would probably cause me some major hurt, and that's only if he than didn't follow up after i was off his back. "why are we ignoring traffic?"

larry holds back an angry growl. i know cause it still vibrates in his chest which i'm sitting above. "is it cause they drive on the wrong side of the road?" i throw in hoping it will mitigate my previous question.

"why does it bother you cousin?" larry asks with a hint of disapproval.

"i don't like getting run over," i reply with only half the truth. of course i don't like getting run over, but i also don't like being a blatant problem to humans. we dinosaurs aren't rulers of the earth anymore, and we have to try and fit in.

"ah if that is all you are worried about then..." larry acknowledges. suddenly he lunges forward nearly jarring me off his back. digging my talons into his thick hide i barely maintain my grip.

i realize that larry is in a full on tyrannosaur charge... right for an oncoming car!

"wait larry! don't," i start pleading, but i am cut off...

a loud crunch of metal and glass echoes down the street as larry skilfully applied his colossal 6 tons of weight onto the hapless vehicle. crushing it promptly.

i feel my heart skip several beats as the cars horn begins going off broken by the impact... what has larry done!?!

i begin to despair. larry has by the second day of his visit completely destroyed my life...

then i see the most relieving thing ever! the driver of the car crawls out of the wreckage of her car, and manages to peel herself off the pavement and just starts running and screaming away from the scene.

"how'd you like that?" larry boasts as we resume walking. my head is still numb from the last minute.

"i learnt that trick while filming jurassic park the lost world ." larry goes on, totally undaunted by the fact he nearly killed an innocent woman, and no doubt has gotten us into tons of trouble. "so long as i can see the car coming i'm not worried about it. you just have to press down on the front part of the car, and not only do you stop it, but the shocks and wheels absorb the worst part of the momentum. so long as their going under 50 km an hour at least."

"do you have an idea how many laws you just broke?" i ask disgusted in total shock, oblivious to how this comment might effect larry's temperament.

"laws don't apply to us," larry smugly replies. "they were made for humans, and only effect humans."

his dismissal of the situation fills me with rage. which if you're a tyrannosaur is quite potent rage. i start to growl...

larry doesn't react typically. normally my growl would be a trigger for a fight (we t-rexs can be very aggressive and competitive towards one another. thus it is interwoven throughout our language tyrannosaurese). larry just starts laughing.

"that is more like it my cousin," larry says cheerfully, the first time he has been nice to me that i can remember. "now you're sounding like a true tyrannosaur. i was beginning to worry that being raised by that soft human had dulled your instincts."

"you could have hurt someone!" i snarl.

"but i didn't," larry turns his head round for the first time since i've been on his back. "you must stop putting the mammals before your own kind, cousin. it is a very concerning attitude that you have developed."

my growling increases. it is the tyrannosaur version of a death threat.

larry lets out a very loud roar for silence in the tone of a pack leader. in human terms if a t-rex pack were like a family than larry acted like dad telling the kids to listen up...

"who cares what i have done, traumador!" he asserts, addressing me by name as his eyes focus on me. "the mammals surely don't. they haven't ever bothered to include us in their society. certainly not their laws!"

"there is not a single law that refers to or applies to dinosaurian behaviour or conduct. only our bones. all they care about is our dead," larry venomously goes on. "had i killed that female there is nothing they could do to me, and the reason. they don't see it fit enough to even acknowledge my existence. anything i do to them is their own fault."

though what he says still enrages me i can't argue with him... larry is right. no where on earth has laws about to us few surviving and living dinosaurs. only fossils, and than it's only who can dig them up and put them in a collection...

"i understand your anger cousin," larry tries to calm the situation. "but save your emotion for the mammals. it is they who have trampled over your dreams and aspirations. not us."

who is this us larry is talking about?

i stew on the events of today's walk as we start walking past the iconic sites of downtown dunedin. among larry's favourites is the octagon cathedral.

"i have been wanting to do a remake of the valley of gwangi," larry muses. "this would make a perfect setting for the end fire."

typical egotistical larry i think. only he would think of casting himself as one of the most iconic dinosaurs in movie history... being mr. jurassic park, and the darling of the BBC dinosaur series isn't enough for larry. now he has to be the ONLY dinosaur in pop culture!?! i hope they remake gwangi and cast ANOTHER allosaur to play the lead role!

"you haven't said a word since you woke me up this morning cousin," larry finally notices. "come speak to me. i have travelled a long way to see you."

"about what?" i grumpily reply. "are you going to try and kill someone else if i do?"

"you are upset about the mammals," larry thinks out loud. he stops walking. "very well cousin. for the rest of my trip i shall try not to directly harm any of them since it uncomforts you so much."

wait what just happened? why the sudden turn around on his stance towards humans? a second ago he told me i was an idiot for feeling that way. now he's going out of his way to accommodate me... what gives???

"alright," i agree wanting that to stick. "what are we going to talk about though?"

i think with my tiny brain. then it hits me! valley of gwangi... movies... dinosaur movies!

i've been writing reviews of dinosaur movies lately, and here i am sitting on the back of some of the most influential dinosaur movies of all time (and trying get himself into more JERK!)...

the info could get for future reviews right now...

"what about some of your movies?" i prompt.

unsurprisingly larry is more than happy to talk about himself, and his fame and fortune. i'll get you that info in some nice new reviews. namely peter jackson's king kong and all the BBC dinosaur series (which craig just got me for my birthday!)

after an hour of this civil conversation, the day's previous drama came loudly back to our attention. police cars cut us off at the top of london street. now lucky for us in new zealand cops don't carry guns cause i'm pretty sure they would have opened fire instantly if they did.

instead over a loudphone "freeze! put your... uh... teeth and claws where we can see them!"

i started to panic. which caused me to chirp in tyrannosaurese a bad habit from my growing up among humans (i didn't need to watch my verbal or body language around them... unlike when i'm around other tyrannosaurs).

"don't act like a hatchling cousin!" larry snarled in disgust. the cops got antsy due to larry's speaking in tyrannosaurese (which is very frightening for people at the best of times). "remember what i said earlier. they have no grounds to bother us. tell them." larry referred to my being able to speak english.

"uh excuse me," i called down.

there was much surprise and astonishment within the police ranks. "you talk?!?" called back one of the officers.

"what are you charging us with?" i pretended to demand. this wasn't going to work i thought.

i was met with silence for several moments. "uh nothing," was the reply i got.

"good. now then tell them we'll be on our way," larry smugly instructs me.

"than you're going to have to let us go," i relay. i worry that they'll contact the department of conservation and find some reason to arrest me.

they seem at a lose to this turn of events. an angry boss looking police officer grabs the loud speaker "oh don't you things think you're clever? acting like a bunch of movie monsters, and than talk your way out of trouble. at least on the TV they can't talk."

he was right. more to the point i was letting larry drag me down into being a sterotypical tyrannosaur just like him...

where was the justice for that lady whose car we crushed, and tried to kill? was this how i was going to define my new life in dunedin by wrecking havoc, and getting away with it because i'm not part of the mainstream...

"it was an accident," i call back. i feel larry shift underneath me "we're sorry, and we're going to pay for a new car."

"what?!?" larry and the police officer ask in unison.

"you just told me how rich you are from jurassic park 3," i address larry. "and you just promised not to harm anymore humans on your trip. well guess what she's still harmed. so you pay for a new car or i'm not talking to you ever again!"

"my cousin here will write you a check for that lady," i call down to the police. "and you have my word that neither him nor i will cause this kind of damage again!"

i'm not sure who was more mad at me the police or larry.

fortunately larry gave them the money, and they reluctantly left. we started on our way back to the gardens.

the walk back was even quieter than our way into town at first. than larry spoke up.

"i'm impressed," larry said. "i never would have expect you of all dinosaurs to challenge me like that. you just made me pay $20,000 without so much as asking my permission."

he was right i did! wow come to think of it that was stupid! larry could easily have swallowed me in 10 seconds, and yet i'd put him on the spot without thinking... man that was dumb!

"to think that lillian said you had no spine at all," larry added knowing full well it would get to me. when had he talked to lillian, the girl of my dreams?

"you're going to have to tell me about your trip to drumheller," i demand of larry.

" you are right cousin. i do," larry agrees. dodging the question as he has been the whole trip though... "for now though let me tell you some more about my movies. as i recall we were interrupted in the middle of prehistoric park..."

he's going to run out of time to tell me sooner or later. what was he doing in at my old home the tyrrell? he hates drumheller and the museum... i also need to find out how larry knew i was in new zealand at all?

even more funny... as we got back to the garden and larry wrapped up his auditory autobiography he'd told me about all sorts of future projects, but made NO mention of this upcoming peter jackson movie of his...

to be continued...

flood!!!

well sadly the universe seems to have decided that the period of stability in my life has ended...

i awake early this morning due to very distressing factors... now granted not as scary as my wake up call several weeks ago, but unpleasant none the less...

early this morning i woke up soaking wet, and lying in a steadily growing puddle of water...

as my brain started to wake up at the early hour of 8am, i was shocked to realize that the hills of the dell all around me were alive with the constant and chaotic movement of tiny waterfalls... which i assure you normally aren't here!

all these pouring right into my territory of the dell... what was causing this i wondered?

i set off immediately to find out as i still wanted to sleep!

sleepily stumbling my up to the top of the dell the WHOLE botanic garden had been transformed into a water park... of sorts anyway...

new micro waterfalls were EVERYWHERE to be found. the pathways were under giant puddles.

the rain that has been going since yesterday is STILL going as hard as ever... at that moment i didn't make the connection what this none stop rain had with the submerging of my home... all i could think of was to grab my umbrella!

planning on finding ben the gardener and see if the garden had something to do with my new aquatic home i made a startling realization crossing a bridge across the leith (though i still want to call it an aquaduck)...

it was full!

normally there's a tiny stream going through the garden... right then a small river was going through!

well that solved one thing. i had for the most part figured out why my home was flooded... the rest of the garden was too!

but what of the rest of dunedin?

i only had to venture out of the garden a block to find my answer...

so it turns out if it rains for 2 days straight really hard with no break it floods after a while...

there were all sorts of official type people out and about looking into the situation. from campus security, to police, and even the fire department (which shows how crazy things were... the fire department dealing with the opposite of their mandated element!)


the reason they were out and about. the leith was a raging river... normally it's just a calm little stream!

the water was nearly up to all the bridges... suddenly i realized i lived across a bridge... if the water made it up there what then?

crossing the bridge back into the garden i was a little freaked by just how much more raging that river had gotten in the 30 minutes i'd been checking it out!

at this rate the bridges might get shut down... leaving me stranded in the garden!

more to the point my home was completely soaked out... normally the forest was good enough protection from the elements, but now it was more like living in a swimming pool. i needed somewhere nice and dry to retreat to and wait out the floods, but where?

suddenly i had an idea!

heading down the leith i aimed for salmond hall. home of not only my great friend owain, but also my legal guardian craig... it was the perfect solution!

i could hang out with owain till the crisis went away, and if things got worse i'd be close to my official emergency contact craig! it's a good thing all the paperwork i've had to fill out in new zealand has included reminders about who i should contact in an emergency...

walking along the leith i couldn't get over just how full it was even here towards salmond!


this is what the leith looked like last time i'd paid much attention to it... way back when i first sought out craig during my countdown to deportation...

see the leith is normally just a tiny little trickle!

there was just one last obstacle i had to overcome to get to the nice safe dry haven of salmond... that was a giant lake that had formed on the street RIGHT in front of salmond!

loch salmond was covered the street from sidewalk to sidewalk, and was at most half a metre deep!

couldn't go around it...

couldn't go over it...

was going to have to go through it...

man that was cold and wet... the good news though it only lasted a couple minutes. right after that i was in the nice dry interior of salmond.

the plan hangout here till the flood goes away. i have work off at moment as the museum is closed due to the flooding anyways. so i'm going to enjoy this slight hick up in the stability.

it's flooding outside what could possibly go worse?

one last look... (counted down part 2)

T-Minus: 1 day!!!!!!!!!!!!

(why didn't i buy that time machine off the internet?!?)

_

Location: Botanic Garden

Objective: I have none...

well people of the web wide world it is over. my quest to get into new zealand. my last hope of fulfilling the government's criteria has failed utterly...

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tomorrow when i fail to present all the requirements for my immigration their going to ship me back to canada (i sure hope i don't have to pay for that!!!)...

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meaning that this was my last day to enjoy new zealand. i had wanted to see so much more of it then dunedin and a few airports... now to boot i don't have much of a day left at that... i hadn't even get to check out all of the otago museum...

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first thing was first. i was going to have to head back to salmond hall and get all my stuff out of craig's room... after everything that has happened with him i don't want to make him any more angry with me...

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well okay that is second thing. at least i can enjoy one last walk through the botanic garden... i'm going to miss the garden. it is by far my favorite thing in dunedin. i was really sad realizing that after this i might very well never see it again...

as i came up to the end of my depressing trek there was one of the many gardeners working away making the place so nice and pretty...

i tried to walk past him so not to interrupt his work. i've already messed up enough people's lives trying to settle here in new zealand. why bother one more i thought...

as i attempted to sneak by he looked up though and said hello...

this took me by total surprise. why would anybody bother to say hello to me?

"i've seen you around here a bunch lately." the gardener said. oh no i thought. was i somehow in trouble?

"have i done something wrong?" i hesitantly asked.

"gracious no!" he laughed. "it's just different seeing a dinosaur walk through my garden is all what's your name?"

i told him who i was.

"ah well a pleasure to meet you. my name is ben. i'm the head gardener here of the botanic gardens." he smiled.

"you look a lot more down then normal mr. the tyrannosaur." he observed. "what's bothering you?"

oh man. what wasn't... so i told him all about my troubles. my being kicked out of new zealand. how i'd messed everything up with getting my life back on track. how this was my last time in the gardeners very beautiful garden.

"it's too bad i couldn't just stay here for the rest of my life." i mused about the garden. won't that have been too easy a solution...

suddenly ben started thinking. wasn't quite sure why, but he was deep in contemplation. wish i had a nice big human brain...

the next words out of his mouth made me think i was dreaming or something...

"frankly i couldn't see any reason that you couldn't just live here in the gardens." he said. "afterall i'm in charge. No point in being that if you can't decide the rules. besides who ever heard of a tyrannosaur living outside a jungle?" he laughed again.

i hadn't been that happy in a long time! i jumped up and gave him a high five!

oh boy! i couldn't wait to tell craig. more to the point the government was going to be satisfied.

"thanks so much mister!" i jabbered. "you won't regret this! i'll be the best tenant ever! i'll move in tomorrow!"

with that i ran off to go and tell craig the good news, and grab my stuff. oh man can you believe that. just like that everything went from disaster to miracle! this doesn't happen except in the movies (well i guess that is no longer true!).

okay those government criteria weren't too bad. tomorrow when i presented proof of my job, my new address, and handed in my 2 testimonials i'd be set to become a permanent... wait a second... 2 testimonials... i needed 3... AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

then an idea hit my tiny brain!

running back up to ben i asked "uh ben would you mind signing this?"

"what is it?" he asked caught off guard.

"uh i just need... you to sign this saying i've moved into the garden." i replied.

"they have a form for that?" ben hesitated.

"oh yeah. you know how the department of conservation is." i lied.

"won't this be for immigration?" ben inquired.

"that's who i meant..." oh man i needed him to sign that form...

he looked at the form for a second thinking about it. i couldn't look him in the face. i just blew everything with this lying thing...

then he just signed it. i couldn't believe it!

i snagged it the second he was done writing. i couldn't afford him finding out i'd lied to him about it...

come to think of it i hope he isn't mad about me doing that...

fortunately for me he seems to have not really cared. he was just a little confused is all...

like that he just went back to maintaining his garden...

well can you believe that people of the web wide world?

just like that one little trip through the garden and everything falls into place...

i'll have to make sure i make it up to ben. my being so hasty and all. not only did he just get me out of the biggest pickle ever, but i guess he's also my land lord now!

okay next up i need to get into the government and prove i met all the criteria...

To Be Concluded