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After a noisy night in a dorm in Penny's Backpackers (people entering the room with the lights on at 2 o'clock) I decided to find other accommodation. And because the hostel was fully booked for the weekend I had to find another place for the other nights as well. On the internet I've seen two nice bed & breakfasts in High Street and since this was quite close to the hostel I decided to go there myself and see if they have a room available, so I won’t be disappointed if it turned out to be not so nice as showed on the pictures. Highstreet is really steep, so I was quite relieved when I saw the first B&B. It seemed lovely from the outside and they had rooms available. Grandview Bed & Breakfast) is an old building from 1901.
The first two nights I had the family room the Grandview Room with the best view over the city, where you can see the ocean and Otago Peninsula. So all my climbing was really worth it. And yes this room is 5 times the price of the dorm in the hostel but actually it is really worth every cent. For (Dutch) people who are curious about the prices: a bed in a dorm is 20 dollar (10 euro). So for one time I will indulge myself this luxury. Especially because I haven't been that extravagant, just because my taste isn't extravagant, or I am just too afraid of heights to fly with a helicopter or to do a bungy jump.
This B&B is just what I always imagined in the books of Agatha Christie, where Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple stay for a while to enjoy some fresh English air. Sometimes this country feels so British, but with a better climate. Schoolchildren wear uniforms, girls have Scottish skirts. People are quite friendly and polite. But maybe it seems more American that they greet you (in the shops) "And how are you doing today". The answer ‘Fine’ is enough, but sometimes they are more curious when they hear your foreign accent.
For Thursday (March the 6th) I've booked a tour to the Catlins. The bus will pick me up at 7 o' clock. Nice to have a pickup, although walking to the Octagon, main square is a lot easier than walking back to the B&B. The owner of the B&B thought the height of the hill was over 300 metres and that we are on 2/3 of it. In the evening I’ve walked to the top of the hill to make some pictures. And then I will be on the same height as the highest point in the Netherlands (321 metres).So I'm glad that there was a bus near the hostel to bring me and my heavy backpack to the B&B. And for Friday (March the 7th) I’ve booked a trainticket for the Taieri Gorge Railway.
On Wednesday I've visited two museums: The Public Art Gallery and the Otago Museum. Normally I don't like to see stuffed animals, but the penguins were interesting, after I've seen the blue penguins earlier (alive). And there was an exhibition about bathing suits. In many museums I've seen a lot about the people of the Pacific islands and sometimes I hardly know where that island is. I might have been very close, flying over it, in the plane from Osaka to Auckland.
The last two nights I had the Colonial "Spa-view" Room. Before I entered the room I've asked the owner, if there was a bathroom as well on the first floor, like there was on the second floor. But I just didn’t have to share the bathroom anymore, because I had my own now, including a jacuzzi. I just felt like a princess, in a big bed with curtains and when I finally found the button for the bubbling it was quite nice. It will be hard to leave Dunedin and especially this great B&B. It's a good test for me to see if I prefer the luxury or the great view and actually I know the type of person I am ;) Can you guess?
On Saturday, after two days of organized tours I enjoyed planning my day as I wished. I’ve made a backup of my pictures on a DVD, because my memory cards were full and, although I have my pictures as well on my MP3-player I prefer to have an extra backup of the pictures of my precious memories. Today the weather improved, so my little backpack is full with my sweater and jacket. In the morning I've visited the Cadbury factory. There are no tours in the working factory in the weekend, so we got the shorter version, but it gave a good view of the chocolate process. And after smelling the chocolate and the waterfall of 1 tons of chocolate I wasn't that enthusiastic about eating the little samples we got. Sometimes it is just too much. But in the shop there were some interesting flavours of chocolate, it’s just a pity that a bar of 250 gram is quite heavy in my backpack, otherwise I would have bought some for my colleagues and friends. Besides some walking in the streets of Dunedin and going to the shops I’ve visited another museum, the Otago Settlers Museum. I liked the exhibition about the immigration of people from different European and Pacific countries and the means of transport.
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| 4-9/3 Dunedin |
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