New Years in Dunedin

We started the day getting a shuttle bus to our Taieri Gorge Crossing Train to Dunedin. After a while we realised the shuttle bus was going to take 3 and a half hours to get there so we relaxed and took in the scenery. Once again New Zealand surprised me with even more unusual scenery. This time it was a dry yellow grass landscape with huge angular rocks lying everywhere. We got dropped off in the middle of no where where our train arrived. The train was in an old carriage with open windows and we travelled over some serious deep gorges. Great stuff. By the time we got to Dunedin the scenery had changed again. This time it was much more like Ireland and you could see why so many Irish and Scottish had settled here.

I was well nervous that Dunedin would be a disaster for New Years after leaving party town Queenstown. It didn't start well when all the first few bars we went to where shut or were shit but in the end we found a Scottish bar with a bit of life and proceeded to get tanked up on beer and whiskey.

The fireworks were in the Octogon and they were directly above our heads which was great except for the hot ashes fallen on our skyward pointing faces. The end of the night is hazy enough but I do remember me and Col running down the steepest street in the world and being literally unable to stop till we got to the bottom.

If Dunedin had a cool scene once it seems to be well hidden now unless we just arrived at the wrong time. Still we had a great time and it was a good way to spend my last day with Col and Mairead.