Another Train and An Evacuation

Day 16 and after a bloody hot and uncomfortable night, we hit brekkie just before 7am with most not happy about the absence of air conditioning. To be fair to the hotel, that area does not have that much warm weather. Apart from that understandable oversight, the hotel was very good. Our journey today takes us to Dunedin and another train ride this afternoon.

It’s just under 300km’s to Dunedin so we would be on the coach for about 3 hrs 30 minutes. Around 10, we stopped at Gore for coffee / tea and to use the facilities. The scenery is mainly farm land with mountains behind that land to the west. Most dozed or read as, by this stage, we were just about immune to the scenery while driving.

Finally, Dunedin is in sight and we pull up in the “Octagon” about midday. The Octagon is the city centre of Dunedin. It is an eight-sided plaza bisected by the city's main street, and is also the central terminus of two other main thoroughfares. We are parked outside St Paul’s Cathedral, a huge church perched up on the hill in the Octagon.

Lunch was the number one priority as we definitely didn’t want to fade away to nothing! Being Sunday, not everything was open and we settled on Subway. These are more numerous in NZ I reckon, than Macca’s. The ladies had some time after eating and there were a few shops open. Nothing was purchased but some merino wool and possum fur items were filed into the memory bank.

We made it back to the bus in plenty of time as we prepared for another train ride, this one from Dunedin Station for about 30kms along Blueskin Bay on the Waitati Seasider. the scenery was good but I wouldn’t call it one of the highlights of our tour.

Following the train ride, Dave drove around Dunedin showing us the sights. We stopped at what is allegedly the world’s steepest street, Baldwin Street. Some walked up. We didn’t go up out of respect for the residents. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Our final stop was the Distinction Hotel housed in the former Post Office. It was a very snazzy joint and was voted immediately as the best one we had stayed in so far. It was in effect an apartment with

laundry and kitchen facilities. The hotels all had been good so it was quite a wrap for The Distinction Hotel, Dunedin.

The drinks before dinner were welcomed and each day, we have a ‘“special” discount rate for our drinks. With the prices at these hotels, the discount gets the cost down to just below exorbitant but as was pointed out by our good lady wives, we don’t have to drink. Pardon?

Dinner was excellent and after a cleanser, we retired. We had a bit of a sleep in as we have another day in Dunedin. Good one!
About 3.45am, a loud siren started ringing and we were ordered to evacuate. Lesley and I quickly slipped on some clothes, grabbed our passports with our carry bags and hurried to the fire escape. Dave had made sure we were all heading out, telling us it was for real. We descended quickly down from the top floor, some 8 floors, and out into the rain. Dave ushered us to the coach to make sure we we all

accounted for and to get us out of the rain.

It appears that there was a fire in an exhaust fan in the hotel kitchen. There were a few fire engines in attendance, probably about six and hotel guests were standing outside the back and front of the hotel in various states of dress. Many had donned the hotel gowns but plenty were just in pyjamas and nighties. After seeing that Yank on the ship in his undies, nothing could properly surprise me now.

During all of this, not one hotel staff member did we see. That was pretty piss poor because I am pretty sure they weren’t helping the fireys out. Anyway, eventually we were given the all clear to re-enter. It had been a bit scary but it couldn’t be helped. So off we went to try and get some shuteye. I couldn’t get back to sleep but thankfully, Lesley did. That meant there was only one grumpy one when we surfaced later that morning.