Despite my latest bus departure by far this morning, I was up bright and early to fulfil a promised Skype session. Luckily the clocks last night went back which meant I got an extra hour in bed, although it just confused the time gap with the UK further with me now being 11 hours ahead. I have been 13, 12 and 11 hours ahead all in the space of three weeks of being here in New Zealand! After a quick shower at the bright and early hour of half 6 in the morning I was all ready to skype before my bus.
Finishing at around 8, I soon realised I had way too much time on my hands with a half 10 departure! Instead of going back to bed I just used the opportunity to have a lazy morning. It wasn't until gone 9 when I was packing my bag, although it was frustrating because I accidentally packed my socks at the bottom and only realised I had no new ones when I had done up my bag. This meant I had to wear the same pair as yesterday! As I had to check out the hostel by 10, after checking out I relaxed on the sofas in the reception of the hostel.
By half 10 the bus arrived which was run by a different company called bottom bus. This caused me problems when booking although everything was all good when boarding the small minibus. In all there was just 7 of us leaving on the bus to do the deep south section of the trip! We drove out of Queenstown the way we came in through the fruit town of Cromwell. Despite stopping here on the way in, when driving through we found out they in fact grow things like peaches and kiwis here.
A short drive down the road and we arrived at our first stop, the Clyde dam which was built many years ago amidst controversy. The construction of this impressive dam flooded parts of Cromwell further up stream which did not make the locals happy. This is why Cromwell lies on a lake. We only ended up having a short photo stop here where we had our main lunch stop in the small town of Clyde. Clyde is an old gold mining town and many of the old buildings have been maintained as how they were back then making the single street well worth a walk along. I ended up having sausage and chips for lunch here which was very reasonable.
The next part of our drive took us through what was described as lord of the rings scenery which once again meant nothing to me. The scenery was pretty impressive being rolling hills and rocky streams in valleys. I should probably watch the lord of the rings trilogy when I return to see if I recognise anywhere! From here our next stop was in Lawrence which was a toilet stop, as well as a so called ice cream stop. These are becoming less of a novelty now as they seem to come on a daily basis!
We then made one last push for our final destination of Dunedin from here, and by around 3 we emerged over the horizon to see the industrial city below. With a population of around 130000 people, Dunedin is often referred to as the student town of NZ with around about 25000 students contributing to the cities population! Dunedin is also famous for attractions such as Cadbury world and the Speights brewery, as well as also being known as the wildlife capital of NZ. With a colony of albatross with an average wingspan of 3m living on the nearby peninsula, as well as penguins and sea lions amongst the wildlife here, you can see why it has this title.
Before going into the centre of the well spread out city, we headed to the north to visit Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. With a 1 in 2.86 incline at the steepest, we were able to climb it which was really steep! Each year they hold a gutbuster event here where people must run up the top and back as fast as possible. The record is 1m 56s! Going back down was the fun part as you had to lean back to avoid going into a more running position. Lets say I doubt the bus would have got up the road.
From here we had a quick guided tour of the city by bus, passing the newly built rugby stadium to start with which apparently is the best place to see rugby in NZ. Unfortunately my trip here didn't tie in with a match. We also passed many student accommodation before reaching the main city centre. Perhaps the most distinctive feature we passed was the centre called the octagon. Instead of a city square, there is the octagon shape with shops and bars based around this! We saw many places on our drive round the city which I will explore more on my free day round the city tomorrow.
By half 4 we were all checked in our yha hostel which was full of Asian people! I simply dumped my stuff here and checked out the shops and octagon area before it got dark, which now occurs just after 6 due to the clocks. I also booked a trip to the chocolate factory and brewery for tomorrow whilst I had the chance. It was nice as well to have a decent sized supermarket here which I have been craving! I didn't buy anything but I will certainly stock up at some point due to the cheaper prices.
The evening was spent in the hostel where I was able to relax using the free WiFi, although it was slow. Next door however was the library which didn't just have free WiFi but free internet! I didn't really fancy doing much other than relaxing this evening, although it was intriguing seeing all these students dressed up for the cinema, apparently a Sunday tradition. Dinner this evening was pasta which was rather late for some reason. I then spent my evening under the duvet on my phone until I fell asleep, something I haven't done for a very long time!
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