Clickety Clack........

After the Chinese Morris dancing last night we were prepared to be underwhelmed by the fireworks at 10pm, so we didn't bother going out to see them - just watched from the window of our room. Underwhelmed is itself an understatement!  The floodlighting of the police yard opposite and the ghastly racket of their security gate opening and closing every time a squad car or a member of staff went in or out were far more impressive - although not in a good way.  

We were up early today to get some exercise in before sitting on a train for 5 hours (with an hour in the middle to take a walk etc). We were on a heritage rail trip up The Taieri Gorge to Middlemarch on a line that closed in 1990. The route was amazing with tight bends, vertiginous viaducts and miles of deserted countryside. As we rolled out of Dunedin we both had a little chuckle as the guy doing the commentary talked about when the area was settled and said in hushed tones that some of the 1860s houses were still standing. Would you believe it - a house can stand for that long without falling apart, our Royal Family will be delighted to hear that I'm sure........

Anyway the journey was good, as was the Southern hokey pokey ice cream we managed to source at Middlemarch. The main problem with this sort of trip is that you just come back on the same route and the novelty wears off before you get back.  Once off the train in Dunedin we were straight in the car for a three and a half hour drive north to Ashburton, which is itself an hour south of Christchurch. With the main road to Marlborough still blocked after the earthquake the drive has become long and slow, so we changed our original plan to break it into two more manageable chunks.

Now tired and ready for bed, so will finish here with a few pictures - not great as most taken from a moving train, some through the window (others from the small viewing platforms)