21 I woke up fairly early, but decided to have a lazy morning as I didn't have anything already planned for the day.
I went to make breakfast at around 9am, and decided to start booking up my travel and accomodation for the rest of the new Zealand leg, as I had managed to work out an itinerary of sorts, and from what I can tell, accomodation is going fast.
After booking the busses out of my flexipass allowance, I managed to find a reasonably priced hostel in Queenstown to stay in (reasonable for Queenstown - it seems to be an expensive place!), and then discovered that there is only one place in Milford sound that can accomodate anyone.
I checked the site and discovered that there was no rooms available, though there were campervan spots. I gave them a call to find out if I would be allowed to pitch my tent on a camper van spot, and was told that it isn't possible, and that the only camping spots near Milford sound, were about 40km away. This didn't seem very practical, as the only transport from those places was a company that would only come out for a minimum number of bookings - so a single booking wouldn't cut it
Having already got the bus booked I felt a little panicked, and decided that the best way to sort out the confusion was to head to the i-Site, as they are employed to figure out people's travel options!
I got to the travel center around 1115, and we soon managed to establish that the Milford Sound Lodge, did in fact have a dorm room available, despite the website saying to the contrary, so I managed to book in 2 nights there before that space disappeared.
I then spent the next 3.5 hours deliberating over what I wanted to do in Milford Sound itself, and have ended up paying for some 3 tours - kayaking for 5 hours, a bush walk to a waterfall (4 hours) and a boat tour including underwater observatory and going by the whole coast line of the sound.
By now, it was 3.15pm, and all I had achieved for the day Dunedin wise, was to plan stuff not in Dunedin. I sat down by in the middle of the Octagon (the city center, which has octagon shaped street plan instead of a square!
I checked the distance to Baldwin Street, and decided that even though it was so late, it was worth going back to the hostel to rent a bike for the rest of the day, so that I could get to the cemetery to find the correct site of my ancestors' burial, as well as get to Baldwin street both on opposite sides of the town.
I made it to the cemetary after some amount of uphill on the bike, and after cross referencing the info Mum had sent me with the map I had already downloaded to my phone, I was able to locate the headstone and extra stone.
This one was definitely the right one, having all the right names and dates on it - I find it a little strange that there is no record of it in the council website. If I didn't suspect there would be a lot of beaurocracy to deal with I might forward an addition request to them!
I then proceeded to Baldwin street, which tok less time than I expected, as I had a good tail wind blowing me along! I did have a scare at one point, as I was travelling at the same speed as the traffic in front of me, leaving a gap in front so I had braking room, and a car decided to overtake me leaving precious little room to spare, with nowhere really in front of me for it to fit in to.
As usual in these instances, he made no time saving from this maneouvre at all, and we both ended up side by side at red traffic lights, he heading left, and me heading right.
Once I reached Baldwin Street, I decided that taking aphotograph really wasn't going to cut it, I had to try and get up there on the bike!
That was a challenge to contend with, and I have to admit that I only made it to about 2/3 of the way up. After that, I was unable to get enough momentum to get back on the bike, as it was so steep, and even before then I was almost falling off the bike backwards!
I pushed the bike the rest of the way, and was rewarded with a bench that had a mural painted on it and its surround, of the street, and an information piece about the street - the average gradient is 1:3.41, and some parts of it have a gradient of 1:2.86!
An asian couple reached the top as I was getting my breath back so we swapped photo-takings for each other. I stayed a little longer than they did, as some more people were arriving up the street and I wanted a clear road to be able to go down with.
I gave up waiting in the end, as an even bigger group of people started up the road, and took up pretty much all of it, so I waited long enough for them to have noticed me and started on my way down.
Some of the people told me it would be better if I went down the hill without using my brakes, which of course I was not going to do with so many people wandering about in the middle of the road! About 2/3 of the way down though I had made it safely past the last of the people so let go of the brakes, and enjoyed the speed that even just that small section of hill allowed me!
By the time I got back to the Octagon, it was getting dark enough for me to put the lights on, so I'm glad I hadn't taken the bike for any longer, though it did have lights, which I made sure to switch on!
I had another noodle based meal and uploaded the days photos, and sorted out my Japanese lessons. As I was doing the Kanji reviews, some new room-mates arrived, from Japan! I tried my hand at welcoming them to the room (£etto, konbanwa, heya e youkoso), which was understood.
They are in New Zealand for 3 weeks, and when I mentioned that my plans including visitting Japan, and travelling from Sapporo to Fukuoka, they advised me that they were from Fukuoka.
It's now almost 10pm, so I'm thinking of going to bed, as the next few days (apart from tomorrow) involve early starts, and I have a few things to prepare. For a start, there are no supermarkets between here and Milford Sound that are very accessible so I need to do another shop before getting the bus at 2pm, and I'd like to get to one of the museums before I leave too.