Dunedin to Queenstown

Oh look, a cut because of images. That’s a surprise.

This was another travel day, though not an early-start day, thankfully, and I’ve got a better idea of where to kill time in Dunedin now.

Pictures of a building, just because I liked the look of the thing.

I found a place to get breakfast by wandering along towards The Octagon (in the middle of Dunedin) until I saw someone in a cafe eating something that looked nice, so I ended up at The Black Dog Kitchen & Bar for a very nice breakfast.

This place was closing down, or maybe relocating & getting rid of stock. I’m not clear on what sort of bookstore they were, or if they even were a bookstore specifically.

I spent some time in the library, and booked a couple more things for the trip ahead, so … That’s done.T

Then wandered back to the railway station because it’s a nice spot to sit & wait for an eventual bus. ( The bus stop was a few streets away, but it’s just an area outside a supermarket with a couple of shelters; The station is nicer )

It was only a few dollars more for the Gold Class seats, so I tried them out. Bit more room, bit more comfortable, and because they had a 2-aisle-1 setup, no seat neighbour.

I was halfway wondering whether the guy from the Rakiura & Invercargill & probably Dunedin hostels would also be on this bus, but he wasn’t. There was, however, someone I recognised from the Dunedin hostel, plus a couple of different people from the Rakiura one.

The coach stop on this trip was at Ettrick, a town I’d never heard of (to, I suspect, nobody’s surprise)

But there’s a little café with seating indoors, a nice garden outdoors with some big-ass tables, and apparently some accommodation somewhere.

It’s one of the things I remember from my US trip by train – You pass through these places you never knew existed, and that you’d maybe like to stay longer at, but … You can’t, because the train/bus is leaving.

Various shots from a bus;

Eventually, we got to Queenstown, which is surrounded by mountains. For some reason I didn’t realise that.

I’d been sent late check-in instructions by the hostel, with a door code & the code to the lockbox where my key would be, but there were still people there, so … No need.

The rooms are named. There was a place in Edinburgh where they did that, so I think I was in the Shire room in the Sam bunk, with other folks in Frodo, Merry, & Pippin.

I’d booked a private room because I’m not sleeping as well as I could be these days, and that’s obnoxious in a dorm. I was expecting, because it’s Queenstown, a ludicrously expensive basic room.

What I got was effectively a hotel room that happens to be in a hotel, with one hell of a view.

Got dinner from a Speight’s Alehouse, and it was very nice, though of all the things to screw up on an order, I didn’t expect it to be the beer. Not at a place that’s literally based around beer. But somehow they did it. (And fixed it, so that’s ok)