Palmerston is very much a one-horse town; we have noticed the apparent exodus of people from the smaller rural towns to the cities on our travels. Strangely it had 2 second-hand bookshops, one of which only sold NZ books and exhibited the caption ' NZ has more history books than history'.
As we left this morning the motel owner came to see us off and asked as to our next destination. We told her and asked if it was hilly to which she replied 'it's very picturesque', and boy was she right - hill after hill with a 6k ascent followed by a 3k descent so steep that we had to use the drag brake for the first time this trip. We found a great coffee house near the sea at Waitati, then we climbed for another 10k, meeting on the way up 2 female cyclists on their way down - the first touring cyclists we had seen since the second day of our trip; there is a definite dearth of touring cyclists despite what the guide books and NZ tourism say. We have hardly seen any cyclists outside of the cities. When we reached the top of our 10k climb we were rewarded with magnificent views of Otago Harbour and the sea entrance to Dunedin. We then descended for many kilometres again having to use our drag brake and finally we were at Dunedin [ which is gaelic for Edinburgh]. Ascending the hills was complicated because our gears were playing up again, and so our first stop was to a bike shop where the mechanic said ' she's a poor old girl'. For a moment we wondered if he was referring to Linda but more prosaicly he was commenting on our small chain bracket! Hopefully he has sorted it out but more refurbishment work will be required on our return home.
A very Scottish-like feel about Dunedin and its sorrounding countryside and so for example overlooking the centre of the town is a statue of Robbie Burns. We wandered around and particularly liked the writers walk where NZ writers are remembered.
As we entered Dunedin we stopped at the start of Baldwin Street which is listed in the Guiness Book of Records as the steepist street in the world and one can get a certificate if one is able to walk up it. Linda wondered, briefly, if we could get in the record books by being the first people to cycle up the street on a tandem. However we decided that this would be one hill too many.
1 comment:
Partly because of your very entertaining descriptions of the landscapes and partly due to the fact that I'm not privy to your itinerary, I'm reminded of the beginning of a peom that father-in-law Jack has been wont to quote from time to time (usually at unexpected moments):
"Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend."
You'll be delighted to hear that the snow has all gone now and we're basking in a brief interlude of mild weather. I cycled to and from work today!
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