Dunedin

Twinned with Edinburgh. You can buy a lot of Scottish stuff, imported direct from Scotland. Want a kilt and bagpipes, nay problem. Perhaps some shortbread, and a pint of heavy, och aye. Even the style and building materials are reminiscent of parts of Edinburgh.

One of the four big cities in New Zealand. A big university city. Like many places in New Zealand has a lot of steep roads. Also the home of Speights brewery, so according to Mike all is forgiven!

Talking of steep roads, Dunedin boasts the steepest road in New Zealand. It is called Buchanan Street. 350 metres long, 1:5. Now Mike knows what all the training was for!!

Staying at Hogwarts. At the top of a hill, as you might expect. Close to a monastery and church. Staying in room nine and three quarters. Difficult to find the door as it is covered with the same wallpaper as the walls.
Very comfortable with all the comfort's of home. Staying for 2 nights. Stuffed owls all over the place, along with lots of people with pointy hats.

Spent 4 hours on a train exploring the Taieri valley's and gorge's. Spectacular scenery, some of which is only accessible by rail. Also spent a happy couple of hours being taken round the brewery, and sampling 5 different ales as many times as you liked. Yvonne did not drink her beers, so Mike helped... Cost $25. Mike drank at least $30 of beer (beer is quite expensive at around £4-5 a pint in the pubs).

Dunedin was crowded by New Zealand standards. Fleetwood Mac were in concert. So the place was teeming with 50+ year olds. Felt like a retirement city, or euthenasia by hilly roads.

Relatively New Zealand is far from packed with people and cars. The speed limit us 100 km per hour on derestricted roads. So one can toodle along for mile after mile and not see another vehicle. Then suddenly a pack of them zooms in doing 100 kmph, regardless of the actual road conditions, four or five vehicles nose to tail.
So there you are, doing a moderate 80, and the pack just stays behind making no effort to overtake despite having a view of 500 plus metres of clear roads ahead. Slow down to 60 and they just do the same. The only way to get them to overtake is to pull over. Then they pass, and accelerate to 100 kmph. This happens time and time again. A bit like Mad Max!!

Leave you with some photos. Hogwarts, our room, at the top of the steepest road, the bottom of the steepest road (it is so steep that the footpath on the right are steps. It begins where the road colour changes), Yvonne at the front of the train, a typical view.