day 12: Invercargill to Dunedin Day 13: Dunedin

We left Invercargill under rain laden skies hoping to get to Bluff before the rain actually fell, but our hopes were dashed, we made it to within 10kms of Bluff before it started to spit. We had also thought about doing the Southern Scenic route through the Catlins area, but the rain was going to be persistent in that area, so Dunedin was our destination for the day. The trip was cold and cloudy, with a quick stop at Gore for an apple. We arrived in Dunedin just after lunch and found the Chalet Backpackers on High St, (see Photo right) we just got settled into our room and the rain came down. The Backpackers is situated within 10mins walk of Octagon, but coming back is about 15mins up hill. So we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon wandering around central Dunedin.

The central city is loaded with historic old buildings, so many that I didn't get one photo of them, spoilt for choice. Being a Sunday it was fairly quiet but still bustling with the cafe set. The highlight for me was the Chinese Garden down by the Railway station, it was beautiful and very restful, even though it cost $9 to look at it. But I found it very restful after the constant moving of the last few weeks. I think Paul and I are getting a bit tired. So we decided to spend day 13 in Dunedin again, and have a more restful day....yeah right.

Day 13: We spent the morning relaxing and then at about 10ish we headed off for the Otago Peninsular for a look at the Albatross Centre and Larnach Castle. The scenery was lovely, but the harbour is very shallow in places and looks very much like Whangarei Harbour. We reached the Albatross Centre out at Tairoa Head? it was very informative, but to see an Albatross was going to cost us $100 for a tour. So we looked at the photo's instead. Then on to Larnach Castle, apparently a beautiful building filled with antiques and an award winning garden, but alas that was going to cost $54 just to have a look, so we passed on that.

This probably has become one of my pet peeves during this trip, the amount of money that you have to fork out to see stuff. Yes there are places you can go and things you can do that cost nothing, but the rest costs an arm and a leg and your right ear as well.

Anyway back to Dunedin we came, and walked down from the hostel to the Law Courts Tavern for a lovely roast dinner for $11.50 a head, damn good value. So that brings you up to date with our goings on, tomorrow we are off to Oamaru then we will see after that.