A visit to the Scottish city of Dunedin

Shoreline in the Catlins area en route to Dunedin
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Next stop on the tour was Dunedin.  Was a very nice drive through the Catlins area, and saw some more beautiful coastline and green valleys along the way.

Dunedin is a cool little student town, with a very strong Scottish heritage.  Lots of cool shops, restaurants, bars, etc., and a very vibrant student atmosphere.  The central square is surrounded by old architecture and cafes, etc. and has a very quaint and homely feel.  Reminded me a lot of Kingston in a lot of ways, and I liked the air here much more so than Christchurch, so I again decided to hop off to spend a couple of relaxing days here.

Time to catch our breath in Dunedin

Shoreline in the Catlins area en route to Dunedin
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On the drive down to Dunedin, we decided to have a couple of beers (at the driver's insistence!) and enjoy the drive.  Not too crazy, but just one or two on the road.  When we got to the city, it was a quick wander around and then off to the Speight's factory for a brewery tour.  Probably the strangest tour I have ever been on in many ways, but it was fun.  They gave the history of brewing beer, not just in NZ, but also back to Egyptian times!  There were mannequins and recorded voices telling stories, which was kinda strange...  At the end of the tour we got to sample 6 different kinds of beer.  Given the size of the group, we were allowed to help ourselves, to which no one complained!  However, we only had about a half hour, and they were really pushing to get us out, so it was a very quick sampling session!  My favourite was Speight's dark, which tasted a lot like Guinness but had a much thinner body, and was carbonated rather than nitrogenated...

Waterfall in the Catlins area en route to Dunedin
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Afterwards, we grabbed dinner in the Speight's brewery pub, which turned out to be reasonably priced and very tasty!  Of course, we did a bit more "sampling" of the beers there over dinner as well.  We went back to the hotel for happy hour, but it was the dullest bar I have ever been in, so we all left and decided to explore the student bars.

Our first stop was extremely sacreligious - we went to an old church that was converted into a dance club called "The Vatican".  You could even still make out the alter, organ, etc. so it was kinda strange...  There was no one there other than us, which was a shame, since it actually was playing good music and had cheap drinks.  Since we were alone, we decided to move along.

Lighthouse on the coastline on way to Dunedin
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We ended up at a crappy bar called The Bowler, which was much more busy.  Things went a little nuts there, since they had really cheap drinks on, and it seemed like they were flowing continuously at our table.  I also ended up in a strange confrontation with a local kid.  He came over to the table, and must have been really drunk.  It looked like he was going to start hitting on a couple of the girls, so I sort of tried to intervene in a non-confrontational way.  I saw that he had a bone carving around his neck, so I asked him (totally innocently) "Did you make that bone carving yourself?"  He totally took it the wrong way, and for some reason stepped up to me.  I was really only asking since many of our crew had made them in Barrytown a few days before.  He got right in my face and started pushing me, trying to pick a fight.  I couldn't erally believe it, and wasn't about to start anything over something that stupid, so I tried to explain, but he had none of it.  The next half hour or so, he would just come by and give me a push, and his friends would pull him away.   Finally, I had a chance to speak to his friend alone, who was much more sober, and explained the situation.   He went over to the drunk guy and told him, and the drunk guy came over and apologised instantly.  Then he was my best friend for the night...  Strange...

After that place closed, we ended up at another bar, for which I can't remember the name.  It was a dance place, and everyone was on the floor for the rest of the night.  I got dared to pole dance, so for some reason I decided to do so...  What else is new, right?  I was getting pretty tired at this point, so I decided to head on home.  Most people stayed out all night long, and were really in bad shape for the early morning bus the next day.

After the bus left, it was only Maija, Trevor and myself in the hotel, and much of that day was spent recovering and sleeping from the late night on Wed.  In the evening we wandered around town, grabbed some food, and then headed back to the hotel to watch TV.  Really a chilled night, capped off with a late-night Domino's pizza run, and then bed time...

Friday was also a slow start, and Maija and I ended up wandering the city and relaxing.  Somehow we had missed Trevor, so the two of us ended touring on our own.  Chilled in some cafes, got my haircut, sent home a package, and generally just soaked up the air around us.  Not really productive, but I think the couple of down days were very necessary...