Badminton and Dunedin

With Oamaru and elephant rocks in the rear view mirror i headed on south for Dunedin.. it was a really nice drive down there and got in just as it was geting dark.. I soon found Dunedin to be full of hills and was a pain in the ass driving about looking for a hostel where i could park the car too.. Anyway i booked into the Kiwi's nest hostel which i didnt really like so i checked straight out of there the friday morning and moved to the city centre to the Hogwartz hostel which was really cool. Friday morning i walked about the city which was draining as there are just so many hills.. its like San Francisco but looks more like Edinburgh in Scotland.. But Dunedin is a scottish settlement and translates to Edinburgh in scotts Gaelic appearantly. Anyway friday evening and saturday i had the Otago open badminton championships to play in.. Singles was on friday evening and shite draw again i got the number 1 seed in the first round... Close game but no joy. But i did end up going into the singles plate event ...I had only actually entered the singles but Ella from christchurch had entered as well and when she heard i was going she put me in touch with Renee also from christchurch to play mixed with and to play doubles with Nik who is from Malaysia and lives in christchurch now. Lost in the first round of the mixed as well to a strong pair and into another plate event. So saturday i was still playing in all 3 events and was regreting walking up and down so many hills. The mens doubles went really well and Nik and me gave the number 3 seeds a beating and then hammered the number 1 seeds in the semi fianl which was sweet revenge having lost to the same guy in the singles. Unfortunatly we lost the doubles final in a close game. I managed to get through to the singles plate final and won that, Also got through to the mixed plate final only to meet Nik and Ella which they won but it was an enjoyable game.

another gorge view

Lynn and Barry another irish couple who live in christchurch were also down playing in the tournament so after the tournament on saturday nite we all met up at their motel and got pizzas and beer for the evening.

Baldwin st.. the steepest st in the world

Sunday morning the christchurch lot drove back north and it was time for me to hit the tourist stuff again...Although i was pretty lazy cos my legs were still sore as hell after the tournament. I went on the Speights brewery tour for the evening  which was really good and then went on to the Speights Ale house for the rest of the evening with some Canadians and English that were on the tour.

Monday i went on the Taieri Gorge scenic railway tour which was brilliant. The train goes 50km to a place called Pukerinigi.. takes about 2 hours to get there going through a load of tunnels and over old bridges. It was a railway built back in the 1800's for a gold rush. You see very little if any civilisaton on the way and the only access to most of this area is by rail only.

Barry and Lynn

I checked out of the hostel on tuesday morning and headed for the Otago Penninsula which is just off Dunedin. There is a lot of wildlife here and a castle which is seemingly the only castle in the country. And once i had that all knocked on the head it was south again for the Catlins national park....

church in the octagon

dunedin from penninsula

everyone...ish

no shit ... this is the town

Rail station to Taeiri

Renee me and Nik

Speights Brewery

st.. somethings church

taeiri gorge railway..

the gorge

the train

tip of otago penninsula

where speights comes from