The Road Not Taken

Leaving Queenstown was not easy as it was growing on me and we had to leave behind our Irish mascot Neil. For this part of the journey I was to head off with Nick (The Van) in his Nissan Vanette (1984).

The morning started with a downer as Nick had lost his wallet the night before. A trip to the club and Police station and still no wallet. Over a full breakfast Nick had to cancel his cards, however he did have a few “spare” cards in case of an emergency.

A beautiful sunny day lay ahead of us and we set off on our four and half hour jaunt to Dunedin. We passed a few spots for photo ops
along the way, sometimes not even bothering to get out of the van, as can be seen here.

Nick had a massive hangover so I did my best to keep him awake and he even mustered the odd smile or two.

Upon arrival at Dunedin we checked into the On Top backpackers which was pretty empty. True to form there were pool tables downstairs for $5 an hour so needless to say we sent some time over the next few days playing down there.

Dunedin was pretty quiet but a few of our party managed to liven it up a bit, most notably Gavin who was being pushed around the supermarket in a shopping cart and was then flabbergasted when they refused to serve him wine. Not to be detered he left and changed his shirt and returned with the aim to fool the folks at the counter. I was not present at this event but was present the next day when Gavin was shall we say “ill”.

Lesley and I did take a trip out to St Kilda and St Clair beaches one morning and although very cold indeed and me suffering from a cold it was nice to be out of the town and hostel.

St Kilda beach, or maybe St Clair…

St Clair Beach, or maybe St Kilda…

Lesley contemplating taking a swim

Others brave the cold for a view of the surf

I am in there somewhere underneath all the layers

For the next stint we picked up another traveller, Dan from Northern Ireland. Dan, or doctor Dan as he became known as due to his profession was not the smallest guy being a sort of mix between myself and Nick so the 3 of us in the front of the vanette was not a pretty sight.

After picking up a much needed new brake light and stopping at Baldwin street, the steepest street in the world, for a hike up there and back Dan decided the back of the van was a good place to be and layed out on the inflatable mattress for a read. Halfway to Christchurch we swapped and after a few minutes of reading Andy McNab was taking a little snooze for myself. What a way to travel. Nick did a sterling job of driving all the way, this time not with a hangover so I think that made the journey a touch easier.

The Van

With it’s proud owner…

Christchurch greeted us with some sun but that soon changed as the heavens opened which meant our night on the town was a wet one and freezing cold too. This is the coldest I have been since I got to NZ. Our hostel is also the worst one I have stayed at. The Occidental Backpackers on Hereford St should be avoided at all costs. I would not stop going on about how crap it was to Nick and Dan (who stayed elsewhere). 3 tier bunk beds! Luckily I got a bottom one. Also for a place that has room for over 80 people there are only 3 showers and for the men, one sink! The place is generally a bit of a dive and after staying in a few nice places you realize when you get a dump.

I am deciding now when to take the Tranzalpine express and also if I can afford to go rafting here and up to Kaikoura to see whales and perhaps dolphins. However, I do need to curb my spending and I may want to hire a car to travel back around the south island and up north to Auckland and around the northland to finish my trip here.

I am writing this with an horrendous hangover after trawling the bars here in the cold last night. I did manage to meet up with Laura from Nuneaton again and she came along with us around town. I am still in search of a club where I can really dance. I think I will try BASE, The Church and Mission as they all seem to get good write ups. The cities tend to be a little bland here and towns such as Wanaka and perhaps even Queenstown have much more of a south island feel, or what I perceive the south island should be like. I hope to return to those places soon.

I am also crying out for some sun. Nick is selling his van here and will be off to Oz soon and from what he is saying not too soon. The weather has not been kind to us recently and we are all looking for some warmth. I know Australia will have that in spades so I will not get too bogged down with the weather although having a cold does not help matters.

That’s pretty much it for a while so I will post here again when I have a plan for my next move around the island.

Tags: New Zealand

This entry was posted on Friday, November 26th, 2004 at 3:04 am and is filed under New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.