Musings of an Idiot

Pitstop Dunedin

The strangest of things that took place on the morning of departure from Alexandra was that we traveled by the same bus driven by the same driver who drove us from Queenstown to Alexandra. So not much chance of any good photos but managed to sneak another couple of decent ones through the journey. It was an overcast day and it did rain for a bit as well but still the fact remains that Central Otago has stunning landscapes.



Driving through the small towns was weird because they were pretty small but each of them seemed to have atleast 3-4 churches. We stopped over in one of those towns for some breakfast and we talked to a Canadian couple who were travelling through New Zealand. Lance was supposed to pick a table to sit and as I finished placing my order I looked over and saw him sitting with the Canadian couple. I would have rather preferred if he had sat down with the cute girl who was sitting all on her own but it was not to be. He later explained to me that the couple had asked him to join them and that's the reason why he was sitting with them. Anyway it was interesting chatting to the couple as they were creatives as well with the husband coming to New Zealand and reconnecting with his ancestry who had originated from here 3 generations ago. It is a small world and it never ceases to amaze me how connected we all are - even when it is not really that obvious.

The rest of the bus journey was uneventful and the only minor event was being returned my sunglasses by a hot french chick. That was the day when I kept leaving my sunglasses behind everywhere - 4 times it happened and 4 times they came back to me - it just proved that we were meant to be together - my sunglasses and me. :-)



In Dunedin we stayed at Central Backpackers and it was a great place. The atmos was great and the rooms were clean and tidy and it had a homely feel to it even though it was a backpackers hostel. I would highly recommend it if you are traveling to Dunedin.

We sorted our shuttle service to the airport for the next day morning and then explored the city on foot. I loved the buildings in Dunedin - they have a very classical feel to them and you have some really cool back alleys that open into amazing looking buildings. An example of the buildings in Dunedin is the church below


After roaming about the city for a while Lance and me decided to have a couple of drinks at Craft Bar and luckily there was a live band playing in the pub and it was a great experience. I had the loudest hiccup in a while and it over rode every other sound in the pub for a moment. The bar tender was amused and offered me a shot of raspberry syrup. I was apprehensive about that cure and I just wanted some water but she asked me to trust her and strangely enough the hiccups disappeared as soon as I had that shot of Raspberry syrup. Oh and the lightly battered oysters that had come in that morning from Bluff were amazing - it was the first time I had oysters and that was one of the finest seafoods I have eaten.



After a few drinks we went back to the backpackers. I stayed back as the wind had picked up and it was freezing cold outside but Lance went for a walk to explore the city some more. After sometime in the room I decided to watch whatever was on T.V in the lounge. There was a whole bunch of people watching 'Grey's Anatomy' and I joined them. By the time Lance came back - the couple of guys who were in the room got bored and left, so it was really amusing seeing his expression when he came into the room to find that I was the only guy sitting amongst 10 girls watching T.V.

Lance bumped into a childhood schoolmate on the morning of the flight. She was having an exhibition of her photography in Dunedin. Again as I said - it is a small world really. The ride to Dunedin airport was long and it felt like the shuttle was driving us to a different town to catch the flight. I presumed that the flight was a direct flight between Dunedin and Auckland as the tickets didn't mention any stop over. But as luck would have it there was a stop over in Wellington - which annoyed Lance as he was supposed to go down to Wellington later that evening for his current camera job. If I had known earlier that it was a connecting flight then he could have just gotten off at Wellington but it was too late for that, so he grudgingly got onto the flight knowing that he would land in Wellington then fly to Auckland and then fly back to Wellington later that evening . Besides the constant jabs at me for the oversight by Lance the flight was pretty uneventful. Oh no - I almost forgot to mention the quiz about New Zealand that was playing on the flight - being competitive as we are, Lance and me started competing on that and funnily enough I won the contest even though I barely know anything about N.Z history. It annoyed Lance to no end but it was so satisfying for me. :-)


Lance's folks were kind enough to drop us off at the airport when we left Auckland and they came and picked us up when we returned back home. The first thing that hit me about Auckland was that it was pretty humid compared to the weather that I had seen in South Island. The good thing though that it was a nice sunny day, so returning home wasn't as painful. Tina - Lance's mom, cooked us an amazing lunch of fried fish that they had caught themselves a couple of days back. It was so yummy that my mouth is watering just thinking about it.



After the quick meal - it was back home for a quick shower. The shower was so refreshing after having skipped taking a shower for 2 days in a row. :-) After that it was off to my acting lessons, which ended the wonderful 5 days of time away from Auckland.


So thats the last of the blog entry in relation to the South Island trip {I will probably do a new entry with a few pics from Rachel's wedding once Lance comes back}. I will definitely take a longer trip there sometime in the future - maybe backpack my way through - who knows?

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Adventure, Dunedin, New Zealand, Queenstown, Travel

posted by Amit @ 8:05 PM