The Road South

My brother and I woke up the next day eager to begin our adventure into the southernmost reaches of the South Island. Neither myself nor he had ever been down that way before and I was anxious to see this part of the country. On my previous trip to New Zealand, the bus tour had taken us into the central highlands of the country but not into the deepest south. It was primarily for the reason that I had never seen the far south before that I chose this itinerary for the trip. Our destination today was the port city of Dunedin on the South Island's southeastern coast. Dunedin is the largest city in the province of Otago (oh-TAH-goh) and is a major port of the country.

However anxious my brother and I were to get to Dunedin, we had to endure a fairly lengthy ride on the InterCity bus. New Zealand has a fairly extensive and inexpensive bus network the criss-crosses the country. The distances between the major cities are not far enough to make air travel very economical, though airfares aren't particularly expensive, and rail travel is quite costly and not very popular. The journey south took longer than would otherwise be necessary as the bus had to stop at several little towns to pick up and drop off people. As well, since the buses in New Zealand do not have toilets, there were occasional toilet breaks. I think InterCity Buses should institute an express service between the major centers which I think would be profitable in the long run.

Even though the bus ride was long, about 7 hours, it did go through fascinating country. Leaving Christchurch we passed through the towns of the flat and fertile Canterbury Plain where farms abound. About 3 hours later, our first break was in Timaru (tyh-mah-ROO), a port town at the southern end of the Canterbury Plain. I wandered the town a bit, seeing not much of terrible interest, before hopping back on the bus and continuing south. South of Timaru, the hillier country meets the sea and there were plenty more sheep paddocks than produce farms. The scenery was fantastic though as the clouds obscured the Alps to the northwest but the sun shone through illuminating the region around us. Finally, after many hours, we arrived in Dunedin not long after sunset.

The first thing my brother and I did was to try and find our hostel, he booked all of the accommodation, called Hogwartz. Despite the name, it was not Harry Potter-themed when we got there. Along the way, I snapped a picture of the very architecturally interesting Dunedin Railway Station. The hike to our hostel was quite trying as it was all uphill. Dunedin is built in a valley that slopes toward the sea. Central Dunedin, though,is not actually built by the sea but by Otago Harbour, a long inlet, although the southern portions of Dunedin do abut against the ocean. After a long hike up several steep hills, my brother and I found ourselves at Hogwartz.

Hogwartz is a very pleasant youth hostel run by a husband and wife team. It's located just off the road and was once the residence of the bishop. They owners bought it off the church and converted it into a youth hostel. The place was quiet, comfortable and not too far from the central part of the city. My brother and I dropped our gear in our room and went into town for some dinner. After sampling the fine dining at a local pub, we returned to our hostel ready to explore Dunedin the next day.