Queenstown to Dunedin

Well not such a good start this morning. The lady from Kiwi Experience said that my start time would be 0650 but it was actually was 0750! So the Info and Track centre where I was meeting the bus held my bags for me whilst I went for breakfast!

On the bus there were a few faces from my bus trip down the west coast. I am only staying on today as I plan to jump off in Dunedin.

Our first stop was at Cromwell where the bus that is going Queenstown to Christchurch also stopped, there were a fair few people that I knew off of that bus as well! I said goodbye to a few people as they were all heading up the country to fly away or to the North Island, I still have a while before that happens!

Back on the bus our first scenic stop was the Clyde dam - not very scenic just alot of concrete!

We were driving down whats called the Gold Rush highway! Basically alot of the towns along the way were set up for gold mining so they play a large part in New Zealands history.

We only stopped once for a toilet break and then we headed hrough Dunedin to Tunnel Beach. This was about a 20 minute walk down and then we had to go through a tunnel down to the beach. It was so beautiful, the sun had come out quite a bit by this point so were were really hot. Walking back up took twice as long because of the heat and the steepness of the track!

We then drove into Dunedin City and we went to Baldwin Street which is the World's steepest street! A few people walked up it and back again but I walked part of the way and took some photos!

In town we were dropped off at our hostels. I was at the YHA which was lovely but about a 15 minute walk out of town. I walked down into town and they had a santa parade happening! Really christmassy! The main street was closed off for the floats and bands etc!

Dunedin is gaelic for Edinburgh and all the street names are named after the original - Princes Street, George Street, Moray Place! They don't have a Royal Mile though and in fact it's nothing like Edinburgh at all!

I went to Starbucks and then visited the tourist information office. I found out about another backpackers hostel behind the octagon (the main square) that was brand new. I went and had a look - really nice! So I made arrangements to move there tomorrow!

I went to Subway for dinner and back to the hostel where I met some people in my dorm and chatted to them before I went to bed!