Last night it rained constantly and carried on until we left the Evansdale Cheese factory. The only reason we stopped was because Louise was fed up of driving in the rain, which is fair enough I suppose. After filling up on tasty cheese we headed to the ‘Edinburgh of the South.’ I am of course talking about Dunedin. I don’t know why but Dunedin is one of the places I’ve looked forward the most on this trip, so we’ll see if it lives up to expectations. When we entered the city we didn’t know where we were going or where to head. As it turned out we ended up driving
past Baldwin Street, ‘The World’s Steepest Street.’ We thought we might as well walk up it, to quote a phrase ‘Because It’s There.’ It was a fair old hike, it’s only 150 yards long, but at 1 in 2.67 at its steepest point I suppose it is quite steep. Me, Louise and Flash all did it, and thankfully there was a water fountain at the top to have a drink and then head back down. At the bottom you can go to the shop and get your certificate to say you conquered the street. Before going to the campsite we had a wander around the city centre, or as it’s known ‘The Octagon.’ Louise and I went to the ticket office to see if we could get tickets for the All Blacks v France at Carisbrook (Dunedin’s Rugby Stadium). With a bit of luck we managed to get ourselves a couple of tickets for the match on 13th June, so it gives us an excuse to come back here without Eric and Ernie. Speaking of the Terrible Twins, they’ve booked themselves on a train journey tomorrow.TUESDAY 19TH MAY
With Thelma and Louise on their railway journey it gave Louise and I a chance to just chill out a bit. Going on holiday with family is the most stressful thing in the world. Between Louise and I we managed to do the housekeeping, and that was about all she wrote. It did rain again for the entire day, leaving us both pretty fed up with the weather. I did manage to visit Dunedin Railway station as we had to pick up Cagney and Lacey; so that’s another tick for my monopoly list. Apparently Dunedin Railway Station is New Zealand’s most photographed building, so I thought I’d help keep that record up.
WEDNESDAY 20TH MAY
The weather’s not letting up. Still it is insisting on pissing down, today however it is sleet and hailstones as well as rain.We’ve stayed on a campsite since Monday, and so haven’t had to worry too much about being cold, it’s just pretty depressing when you want to go and do something but can’t for fear of getting drenched to the bone. With these obstacles to tackle we have no option but to choose indoor activities. And with all the options considered we opt for the Speight’s Brewery Tour. The tour seems to be a lot like the Monteith’s one Louise and I did in Greymouth; except for the fact that the guy on our tour was trying just that little bit too hard to get us excited about brewing beer. I enjoy drinking beer and I am interested up to a point, but I think that having gone on two tours in the last three weeks that I won’t ever go on another one unless it’s the Kopparberg Cider one. Plus this tour wasn’t as good as Monteith’s do better beer.
At the end of the tour we got talking to an English couple originally from London, who had been living in Queensland for the last 30 years. The conversation was just general chit-chat about England and what’s going on back there. The conversation then got to talking about London in the 1960’s. Now before I go on, I like a lot of people knew exactly where this story was going, I hoped it wouldn’t go where I thought, but it did. For those of you who don’t, let me carry on.
Back in the 1960’s the woman from this couple was only fourteen but her future husband was seventeen. One day she found out that her Uncles (just what she called them) had people following her to make sure this boy was behaving while out with their niece. Around ten years later after she’d left England, she was on the phone to her parents, and you’ll never guess what? That’s right, her ‘Uncles’ were none other than the infamous Ronnie and Reggie Kray (She made no mention of their other brother Charlie) What a load of bollocks. Somebody on the ‘gangster’ bandwagon again. Every time someone from London talks to me it seems they’re related to the Krays. Are they trying to impress me? I hope not because it doesn’t. Everyone who knows somebody that ever had a drink in an East End pub in the sixties has got a tale about the Krays. Most of them wouldn’t know who they were if you battered them with three life sized effigies. I don’t know why this really riles the shit out of me, because it's almost certainly lies.
Afterwards we went for the biggest meal ever at the Speight’s Ale House just down the road from the factory (which is situated on what seems the second steepest street in the world), then went to the Dunedin Casino where I promptly lost NZ$60 at Caribbean Stud. After much food and beer and gambling it was back to the joys of the campervan and the constant drumming of the rain.
THURSDAY 21ST MAY
Today we left Dunedin and headed out to the Otago Peninsula and Larnach Castle (another one for the monopoly board checklist). The Castle itself is set in amongst glorious gardens, and so it looks absolutely spectacular from the outside. That says quite a lot for the place as being an English Briton I get spoilt with my fair share of castles and stately homes. Inside is equally picturesque, but unfortunately I was unable to take photographs of the inside because rules is rules and they said so. So if you want to know what it’s like inside, you will have to either take my word that it is very nice or spent a thousand quid and fly here for yourself.As it was getting late on in the day we rushed to end of the peninsula to catch a glimpse of the only accessible albatross colony in the world. Unfortunately due to the inclement weather again that was very difficult and all that happened was Louise got wet along with The Krankies, and I got muddy. This was because I fell down a hill. Whilst walking down the hill, no sooner had I said to Louise that the track down to the cliff edge was a little bit slippery, I slid ten feet down the hill and was caked in mud and sheep shit. It wasn’t very gracious either. When it happened I looked like Dumbo on ice rather than Bambi. Worse still, we didn’t see a single albatross, just a lonely seal resting on the rocks.With me wet through and smelling like a sheep, we stopped at the nearest campsite to wash my clothes and get showered. In the meantime Louise and Dot got pissed on a box of wine – very classy indeed.
FRIDAY 22ND MAY
Finally, we left the Dunedin area and headed further south still, to Invercargill where we are planning on heading to Bluff and then to Stewart Island. Not knowing which way to go we stopped in the little town of Balclutha and asked the proprietor of the the local coffee shop. She recommended taking the Southern Scenic Route as it was very ‘scenic’. No shit Sherlock. As we were no wiser ourselves we took heed of the advice and proceeded along the SSR. Again the rain came. We saw what must have been 90% of New Zealand’s sheep population and the odd horse but little else. By scenic, I think they mean green, hilly and sheep infested. Because we were late leaving we ended up parked in a lay-by overnight just before the village of Papatowai. I think there were less than five cars that passed us all night as it is a very remote part of the country.
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