Day 13 - Queenstown to Dunedin by bus

I had bought a bus ticket to Dunedin so I waited outside the YHA until a small 20-seater bus towing a luggage trailer arrived.  The bus driver hadn’t been told about Maggie, but luckily I was early on the pick-up list, so she was pushed into the trailer.  I tried not to think about what else was going to be shoved in there.

I made myself comfortable in the front seat next to the driver – the bus was going to be full, so I decided to distance myself from the rest of the rabble. :)  One big problem with bus (or train) travel is the problem for photography.  There are always squashed bugs on the windows and the reflections mess with the images.  But it is quicker than riding a bike over country already experienced.

Goodbye to Queenstown

After twiddling around collecting people from hotels, private residences and the airport, we were on our way to Cromwell.  It was interesting to see the road I had almost rode and be thankful I had made the right choice going the other way.  

This road had so much more traffic.  We stopped at the intersection where the Crown Range road meets this highway – wow!  I still remember how pumped I still was at that intersection!!

Crown Range intersection - I did pause here!

Crown Range Road information - oh yeah!

Traffic - and poisoned or burnt hillside

Pinot Gris vineyards in the valley

The Pinot Gris vineyards are not far out of Queenstown and they produce some of the top wine around the world.  Amongst the vines are funny looking windmills, so I asked the driver about them.  He explained that they are used to keep the early frost from settling on the vines.  Well, there ya go – I would never have thought of that!

Is this Lake Dunstan?

Once we got to Cromwell, we changed drivers and those that were going north to Wanaka also had to change buses and they took the friendly driver with them.

Clyde - the beginning (or end for me) of the Otago Rail Trail

  Our new bus driver was totally silent the whole trip, which actually suited me really well.  He was reluctant to stop anywhere, until one passenger pleaded for a toilet stop at a small town.  He was muttering about already being late, but everybody streamed off the bus to stretch their legs and some of us bought an ice-cream to help us along the way. 

Lawrence, good place to stop and buy an ice-cream

Church - could be somewhere in North Sth Australia

It was quite a pleasant drive through the dry mountainous countryside.  Occasionally the road would snake alongside a large river, rippling along in all its pale aqua splendour, but mostly it was farming land, with sheep and cattle and the occasional herd of deer, performing amazing stunts at hill climbing. 

The beautiful aqua colour of these waterways comes from minerals washed down from the hills

Farmlands - where's Wal?

Although Footrot Flats is ‘situated’ on the North Island, it was easy to picture Wal and the Dog out and about, trying to find that ewe stuck in the brambles somewhere!  And to understand poor old Cooch’s despair about the lost natural environment. 

Goodbye to the convoy of horse-less trailers

We eventually got to the other side of the country where it was beginning to look a little more green.

Pampas commonly used as windbreaks

Art Deco - Museum in Milton

Lovely little cottage with rose garden, Milton

Still waters, Lake Waihola

We sped past Lake Waihola into Mosgiel, then around to the Taieri airport where a couple quickly jumped out and grabbed their gear and headed into the airport.

We then sped into Dunedin and the bus pulled up at the Railway Station.  The driver switched off the engine jumped out and started roughly unloading all our gear.  So this was the end of the trip.  Cool by me, Maggie and I knew our way up to YHA Dunedin – but other people were standing around looking a tad worried about how they were going to get to where they wanted to go.  Thankfully a few taxis had cruised around, so I am sure most people found their way to their beds that night.

Arriving into Dunedin

So back in Dunedin and while I am thinking about, let me warn those thinking of travelling to Dunedin.  Try very hard to find other accommodation rather than thinking of staying at the YHA Dunedin on Top.  

YHA Dunedin - looks OK from the outside - But!!

This time I had a single room to myself, so that was a good start.  But the bathrooms were always cruddy – wet floors, blocked washbasins, paper towels missing.  On my first stay there, there was no toilet paper in any of the stalls one afternoon.

The kitchen was also pretty disgusting.  There were never enough clean dry tea towels, but there were signs saying wash and dry dishes.  So usually people washed their dishes then left them on the sink.  There were soggy clothes to wipe down the cupboards, but they looked pretty poisonous, so the tables were pretty yucky.  There was often not enough cutlery, glasses or mugs to go around.  And two fridges weren’t enough to cope with the various bags of food of those staying there, nor were two rubbish bins.

Breakfast was included here.  That is: cornflakes, milk, white bread, margarine and marmalade or strawberry jam.  Usually the milk was empty and someone would have to go downstairs to ask for more – that is, if you were game enough to interrupt The Boss – knick-named Lurtch by one couple…  Coffee and tea were available, if you could find a mug.  The instant coffee must have been the cheapest as there was no flavour of coffee at all.  I preferred to go downstairs to the bar and buy a coffee there.  Admittedly the Boss was unfriendly, but he did do things when asked.  So, scrap the breakfast – it was embarrassing – save the money and spend it on getting a plumber in!  
I went and had breakfast at Potpurri - a vegetarian cafe that didn't open till 8:30, but the pancakes were worth the wait as was the yummy coffee.

good food for vegos here - tried lunch & breakfast :)

 The bedrooms seem to be clean enough, tho I overheard the early morning team being told to make sure they put on new pillow cases…  hmmm….  What about the sheets???? Well, when leaving we are only told to bring down our pillowcases while at the other 2 YHA, we had to bring down all our bedding….   Thankfully I overhead this conversation on the morning I was leaving but…..  

Yes, it was cheap, but I would prefer to pay a bit more to cover extra tea towels and toilet paper.  So don’t go there!!  YHA Wanaka and YHA Queenstown were great!  So Dunedin mob are letting down the side.  I gave up waiting for a survey to be sent to me, so sent YHA NZ my own survey - will be interesting to see if I get a reply!