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Dunedin, New Zealand (Aotearoa)
45° 51' S 170° 30' E
Feb 07, 2010 14:44
Distance 0km

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Other entries in Dunedin

On the road once again, 29 km

Text written in: English

Got to the international airport in Edmonton and heard those words that you don't want to hear (especially knowing you have tight connects) "I'm sorry but it would appear that your flight is delayed. But, not a problem, we were there earlier enough that we caught an earlier flight (with not a lot of time to spare). So, feeling quite smug about it all we landed in Vancouver about the time we would have otherwise departed Edmonton.

Got aboard the Auckland flight and about the time we were to leave the captain comes on and tells us that because there is a late connecting flight (ours, presumably), we were going to wait for the connecting passengers. So we sat at the gate for another hour, got loaded up pulled back and waited for another 1/4 of an hour (paper work, so the captain said). But, after that it was a relatively straight forward 13 1/2 flight. Total time on the plane tho, was about 15 hours but I digress......

Just before landing in Auckland one of the crew came over and told us that we had a very tight connection because of the delay (and no, they weren't going to hold the plane for us). We all but pushed our way off the 747 (from near the back), ran from pillar to post but with the bikes and the tent (had to be sprayed and otherwise inspected because of the agriculture rules), ran to the domestic terminal and got to our gate about 5 minutes late. Sigh. So we had a further 5 hours to look at the two terminals. But, it was a pleasant day and we did a bit of a walk, enjoyed the mid 20's weather and eventually caught our last flight of the day (which was also a bit late).

Part of the time in the Auckland airport was deciding about our lodgings for the night. Originally we were to get in early and had planned to camp but we figured that we would not get in to town till about 7 so decided to splurge right off the bat and booked a last minute downtown hotel over the 'net. The other thing we did find at the airport was a spot dedicated to putting bikes back together again. There were two bike clamps mounted on the wall which would make things a whole lot easier. Civilized airport, non?

Anyway, landed in Dunedin's airport (which is about 30 kms out of town), put the bikes back together (everything seemed to be OK, one broken kitchen plate being the only casualty of the trip) and off we wobbled. And wobbled it was. Two tired non-campers sitting on loaded bikes, trying to get used to being on the "wrong" side of the road and dealing with a whole host of things. Had to stop within about a km to do some adjustments on Wendy's gears but after that it was fine. Probably hardest to deal with was looking down {to my left) to check the mirror only to see that there wasn't one there. Other side, buddy, other side. Will take a few days to get used to that.

Unfortunately we were facing a non-Viking wind and dealing with narrow shoulders. Did pass some trees with berries hanging off them, a bit bigger than a cherry but tasting like a plum. So, picked a few of those to fill the hole in the stomach, a bit of a pre dinner treat. Roads weren't all that bad, narrow shoulders but for the most part the drivers were civilized. About half way the road turned in to a freeway (no bicycles allowed!) but there were bike signs which took us along the old road. Climbed a few hills in to town and I'm starving by this point. Wendy, that hard task master cycled right by a take away fish and chip shop (chippie, in the local language) which you could smell the grease a lock away. No chance......

Got to town and figure out where the hotel was. One of the so-called features was the view of teh town. Well, duh folks!, views mean a hill and sure enough, we toiled up a mother of a hill (walked it, actually). Go settled in to a very average room which we both agreed would have been a rip off had we paid the listed rate. But, it was what we needed, next task was food.

One of the things we remember from our last trip to NZ was the marinated cooked mussels and we found them right off the bat. Store had a huge wine selection, all NZ and sorted by grape. We could have two bottles a night of different chardonnays and still not get through it all. So, dinner became a baguette, some double creamed brie, marinated mussels and a bottle of Latitude 41 chard. Does it get any better than this?

 Cheers