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Published: August 12th 2008
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Hello again ladies and gents, for what is most likely going to be my last entry on this trip! I'm gonna cover our days in Dunedin in this entry, and for completeness sake Jason will write up our last few days in Christchurch most likely when we're black in Britain... odd, I know.
Anyhoo, Dunedin (which is Gaelic for Edinburgh, so as I mentioned in my last entry, it's a Scottish city). We left Queenstown on the 9th, following the usual morning routine, except for my trip to the computer kiosk, as my graduation tickets are on sale and I wanted to get them booked asap (thank you Tammy for the heads up!) We get out of the city around half nine, heading west. Not so many mountains today in our eye line, we mostly followed a series of interconnected lakes that were all dammed up, as well as passing the bridge where Daryl did his bungee jump from (also where the Pillars of Kings where filmed for LotR). The sky isn't that clear, with dark snow clouds hanging low in the sky - the radio informs us certain roads around Christchurch and Wellington are closed due to the snow.
We might have to get the chains out on this holiday after all (snow chains you dirty minded people).
The scenery that we do have reminds Jason of Rohan from the Lord of the Rings films, though I reckon it's closer to Dartmoor, with random outcrops of rocks on top of hills covered with Elephant grass (grass that clumps at the base where it meets the ground - we called it that during Ten Tors as only the weight of an Elephant could squash it. They were handy walking across the bogs, but god did it hurt your ankle if your foot came down wrong... anyway...)
The weather continues to get worse, before we finally hit Dunedin, and traverse the city centre and find the top ten park which is little out of the way, up a massive hill. We book in for two nights. Since the city centre is 2.5km away, we decided to dedicate tomorrow to exploring Dunedin, and spend the rest of the afternoon as a lazy afternoon, getting the washing done and just reading mostly.
Jason rings Air New Zealand and arranges to change our flight, and the guy on the end of
the phone comes back with a cost of $488 each to change flights. Jason ends the call and checks with me. That's about 250 pounds. We agree to pay it, but not if it goes any higher. Jason rings them back and gets a second bloke, who moves us to Wednesday's flight for $288 each... bargin! Jason mentions the other price the first bloke gave him (I could have killed him) but the guy doesn't understand how we were given that price, the $288 is right. We pay it there and then.
Our new tickets are sent via internet, so we check the internet kiosk at the camp site but it's a dial up with no printer. I'll let you imagination tell you how Jason reacted to the computer's slowness. We wonder about playing on the 9 hole golf course here, but it begins to piss it down. Guess not. Once again the tumble drier here didn't dry the clothes very well, so we have to leave the heater on to dry them over night.
Sunday 10th. A lie in follows the usual morning routine, though a little slower as there is ice everywhere outside - it's -1
outside and it's almost 10 o'clock. Sky is completely clear so we hope it'll go away soon. We set of into town, commenting about how tricky the walk is gonna be due to the black ice, when I land suddenly flat on my arse, slipping on said ice. We've not even left the motor home yet. Again, I'll let you imagine Jason's enjoyment from this slip.
Though even he shuts up when we walk towards town are faced with the stupidly steep hill. It's covered in ice where the sun hasn't reached yet, and we walk gingerly every time we hit a shadow, no doubt to the amusement of those driving (though a fair few wheels slipped out from under them as they drove past). We reach the Octagon, right in the city centre, and spend the next hour walking from one side of the high street to the other looking for a Global Gossip (the fact it took us an hour tells you how massive this high street is!) Failing to find one we pop into a local internet place and write up the previous two blog entries, as well as getting the airline tickets printed. We've also
got a private message from a guy who runs a website for other travelers who want to visit NZ, and he's asked Jason and I to write up our experiences for his site. Pretty cool huh? (Greg, if you're reading, we'll probably write something up for you when we're back home).
That done we pop into McDonalds for lunch (Jason had wanted to go to Subway, but there was no way I was gonna be having that - McDonalds was a compromise)(plus it was close). Inside the McDonalds we find the Global Gossip. Weird huh?
Lunch done we head to the local train station so I can take a few pics (it's the local landmark, very gothic) before buying a small second suitcase to stuff the souvenirs and various other bits we've picked up over the last few weeks in. That done we head back up the stupidly steep hill and call it a day.
So yeah, that was the last few days. We're in Christchurch at the moment, about to go for lunch and then have a wander around the city's landmarks (guess who's dragging who around). Then tomorrow we check out at ten and are
gonna spend a few hours at the International Antarctic Station, which has loads of juicy stuff on the Antarctic, perfect place for me to plan my next trip eh?
I'll leave it here, Jason's getting his fix of computer gaming news on the PC next to me, but I'm sure he sends his love to all. Heh, we'll be seeing you all soon, how weird is that? Graham, we've discussed it, and can we have a curry? Sorta like the one we had when we came up with Mark for our London trip? Just as long as it's not made with nut oil!
Alright, take care Ladies and Gents, and we'll see you all soon.
Elliott
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Mark Rothwell
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Elliott - Happy Birthday! Soz I have been out of touch, I lost my phone (again) and hence lost all my telephone numbers for everyone! So to Emz, Chloe and all those who sent me cards thankyou very much! ;-) Anyway, fellas, good to hear you will be home soon. It's been incredibly RONERY here in Blighty and I look forward to your tales of death, danger and damsels in distress when you return. Enjoy the next few days. See ya soon!