Dunedin

Dunedin is very very hilly, and currently very very wet. After a very tasty cheese and onion toastie and cappuccino breakfast in Oamaru, I was back behind the wheel and heading directly for Dunedin, so as to maximise our time here. We did take a tiny detour to see the Moeraki Boulders, which turned out to be very boring round stones lying on a beach, but other than that it was a straight road all the way. The further south we got, the greyer the sky became, and before we reached Dunedin we were driving through a rainstorm which just did not let up. I was extremely glad of the automatic gears on the car when we got to the city itself, because navigating steep hills and busy junctions while there is water flowing down the road and the wheels just want to spin and aquaplane is more than enough to contend with, without having to worry about changing gears and not rolling backwards as well.

We headed straight for the Top 10 campsite, and thankfully were able to book a cabin ($48 - $4.80 discount = $43.20 for the night). This is no weather for putting up tents! We are now installed in a spacious cabin with double bed, desk, kitchen equipment, and a power plug, which is fantastic because we are able to charge up all our electronics. I'm having trouble with my MP3 player -- it seems to have locked itself out of USB charge mode, and I only have a USB charger for it -- but everything else will be powered up and ready to go by the time we leave here. The plan is to stay in Dunedin for two nights, but if the weather perks up tomorrow we'll go back to the tent. Time will tell.

The rain is still pouring down, so neither of us really wants to go outside, but it's well past lunchtime and we will have to brave it sooner or later to get food. I know there are buses that go in to the city centre from here, so at some point we'll have to change into warmer clothing (we arrived here in shorts and t-shirts, as befitted the hot weather further north) and go and see what's to be seen. Hopefully my next update will be a bit more exciting!