Thoughts & Walks

Dunedin to Middlemarch by the Taieri Railway

To recap, I will post the map of where we travelled last year in NZ. (Click to enlarge). We are actually heading back there in November, and I therefore thought I had better get my act together and post out photos from .... last year!! 

The Taieri Gorge Railway runs from Dunedin through to Middlemarch in Central Otago. From Middlemarch, we took a shuttle over to Queenstown. 

Work on the railway began in 1879 but was not completed until 1921. It was closed for commercial use in 1990 and is now purely a tourist railway. The scenery is spectacular. You can find the full album of photos in the sidebar here.

Again, I will let the photos do the talking. The Hobbit began filming at Middlemarch 6 days after we were there.

Dunedin Railway Station

 

Travelling from Christchurch to Dunedin - bus.

Continuing on our journey through New Zealand ........ (totally oblivious to the fact that Peter Jackson's The Hobbit cast and crew were travelling only a few days behind us).  

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Once leaving Christchurch bus station (whose office was a container with a portaloo), we hit the road in an Intercity bus headed for Dunedin. As I write this, Christchurch has been experiencing more tremors, so our thoughts are with the residents over there. 

The trip to Dunedin took about four or five hours, but as we left early in the morning, we arrived in Dunedin with enough time to walk around and also take a tour out to the Albatross nesting sites on the Otago Peninsula. 

While the Maori people were the first to establish settlements in the area, Dunedin city was founded by free settlers from Scotland and England. The cool wet weather reminded them of home. Driving out to the Otago Peninsula I was actually reminded of northern Scotland .... there were even dry stone walls dividing some of the paddocks.

I've picked out a few photos of the trip down to Dunedin. It was extremely cold, with snow falling south of Dunedin and across to Queenstown. As you can see from the photos, we are rather partial to snow capped mountains as we don't see them very often here. 

Looking towards Aoraki/Mt Cook national park area

First Presbyterian Church of Otago.

Octagon city centre

Otago Peninsula and Royal Albatross Centre.

 

Picton to Christchurch by Train

Onwards to Christchurch....

As mentioned in the previous post, our InterIsland ferry trip ended at Picton on South Island. although the map below marks Nelson and Pelorus Bridge, you can make out Picton just to the right (East) of Pelorus Bridge.

We were not able to see much of Picton as our train left 30 minutes after disembarking from the ferry. The train was the Coastal Pacific and you can read about it here or here. The trip did not disappoint as the scenery was amazing. (How many times have I used "amazing" now when describing the New Zealand landscape?   ... Well, it is amazing). We followed the east coast of South Island, passed through the famous Marlborough wine growing area (missed the Marlborough Wine Festival though), and at times the rail travelled between beach and mountain ranges. There was even a seal colony on the way! One of the highlights for me was that we were joined by a lovely couple who lived in Marlborough Sounds and who gave us our own personal tour commentary pointing out landmarks and telling us about the places we passed through. Loved it!! 

As before I'll let the pictures do the talking .... I have made up a photo album which hopefully will appear in the sidebar as I had trouble choosing which photos to post here and I ended up with over 21!! Here is the link to the album if it isn't in the side bar.

Marlborough Vineyards - home of a very nice Sauvignon Blanc. Wine festival info here.

Seals camouflaged on rocks (above)

There was snow on the mountains in the background.

As you can see the train followed the coastline so we had sea on our left as we headed south, and fields and mountains on our right.

My next post will be dedicated to Christchurch. We didn't have the heart to take any pictures as so much has been destroyed. We could only stay in an airport hotel as accommodation was not available closer to the city. The CBD was still closed and the night we arrived, the newspapers ran the story that the Cathedral would have to be demolished. There was an outcry when the decision was made public and I need to check to see what has happened over the past three weeks.