Jon Jermey's Travel Blog

Started on the Otago Peninsula again with a long and winding drive to Sandymount Reserve. I had thought it would be deserted, but the car park was already filling up with visitors. Some of these had hi-vis vests with lettering on the back, so I suspect they were volunteers concerned with the penguin program. I began by toiling up the nearby hill for spectacular views of the peninsula, particularly the other side that I don't see from where I am staying. Then I set off for Sandfly Beach. The wind was relentless, so if there are any sandflies there they must behiding under cover and hugging the ground. It was mostly a downhill walk, but it became quite sandy, and I stopped before I got to the beach itself for fear of getting lost among the deserted sand dunes. I had assumed I could follow my footsteps back, but even after twenty minutes the wind was blurring them out, and by the time I toiled up the hill and got back it was as if I had never been. By the time I did all that and also

Started the day with a trip to Lanarch Castle, in the hills of the Otago Peninsula, a short drive up from where I am staying. This is a sort of mini-castle built for a rich banker of Scottish descent from Sydney, who came out here to sort out the Kiwi banking industry, fathered six children, married three times and eventually shot himself in the Wellington Houses of Parliament. No doubt the shareholders and borrowers of Otago were pleased to see their profits and interest payments invested in dragging Venetian glass and Italian marble up a bloody great hill. But the results are quite impressive. The building itself is a sort of mini-castle with a basement, glassed-in verandahs on the ground floor, a tiny second floor and a staircase up to a tower. It's been carefully restored by one family since 1967, when they bought it in a derelict state, and it's now a staple part of the visit for cruise ships, which dock in the harbour opposite. I was almost the first there, but it soon be

Spent most of the day driving down to Dunedin along the coast. It began with a prolonged obstacle course through roadworks and witches' hats, but eventually sorted itself out into a reasonably good single carriageway with overtaking lanes every 5km or so. The car performed well but it's quite noisy, and I haven't brought a device that will allow me to play my devices through the speakers. So I might have to look into NZ radio channels and find some classical music. The drive itself was about five hours, but I stopped on the way at Rakaia -- a rather sad little town, obviously suffering from the closure of the railway -- Temuka, which was a bit more lively and even had a brewery, Glenavy, which had some pleasant gardens just out of town, and Palmerston. I had heard of Palmerston for some reason, but there's not much there. It's where the logging trucks come down to the main road from the mountains. A bout of rain came on after Palmerston and the scenery became a bit

The plane was delayed but we caught up some time on the trip and arrived at about 2:15 NZ time. It was a very smooth and quiet flight on an Emirates Airbus 300. They have upgraded their entertainment system since the last time I flew Emirates, and now seem to have just about every film there is available. So I caught up on the end of Shazam! and the end of Ant-Man, both of which I had seen most of on other flights. Shazam was a little disappointing, although it started well; it was an example of the superhero-somehow-knows-everything-he-needs-to-just by-being-a-superhero trope. There was a Vodaphone booth in the duty-free area at the airport, and they installed a NZ simcard in my phone. It was all so quick that I didn't have a chance to check it, but once I adjusted the settings afterwards it was fine. From there I rang Hitch rentals for their shuttle bus, and that took me to their office, where I rented a little grey Honda. All very quick. And my accommodation is only a kilometre

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