The Taieri Gorge Railway

 

Taieri Gorge Railway train

The historic Taieri Gorge Railway train ready for departure from Dunedin. Photo by David Lansing.

 

I’ve failed to mention why we are in Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand. We are cycling. Six of us: Paul, an editor at Sierra magazine, Michael, a writer from Sonoma, Adriena, an En Zed ex-pat living in Los Angeles, and Justin and Casey, who sometimes live in San Diego and sometimes live in Paris (it’s a long story). And me.

Monday morning we got up early and said goodbye to Fletcher (both the dog and the lodge) and took a taxi to the Dunedin railway station, perhaps the most beautiful such station in all of New Zealand. We boarded our pumpkin-colored rail car, part of the historic Taieri George Railway, a little past nine and promptly at 9:30 chugged out of sleepy Dunedin headed for Pukerangi.

I liked Dunedin. I liked the quiet rainy streets built on hills, reminding me of San Francisco, and the bustle of uni students in all the cafes and pubs, and the somewhat rundown feel of the downtown area—like Portland’s Pearl District just before the stylish bars and gleaming lofts came in.

If Dunedin was a neighborhood in Los Angeles or Seattle or New York, you’d probably say it was on the cusp of gentrification. The Turkish kebab take-out joints are slowly being replaced by hip cafes and while there are still plenty of cheap digs for backpackers, there’s also the four-star Hotel St. Clair with luxurious rooms looking out over the gleaming waterfront.

Anyway, I was sorry to say goodbye to Dunedin. But it’s time to move on. To Pukerangi (Maori for “Hill of Heaven”) where we’ll be fitted for our bikes, and then on to Naseby which, since being founded as Hogburn during the gold rush of the 1860s, has changed its name four times in an effort to gain a little more respect. I don’t know about going with the name Naseby. I think they should have stuck with Hogburn.

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3 comments

  1. Allan’s avatar

    Well, the sight of you in Spandex cycling shorts will be eagerly awaited by you web fans. Did you spring for the shorts with the padded crotch?

  2. David’s avatar

    Allan, you’ve absolutely got to have the padded crotch.

  3. Allan’s avatar

    The padded crotch can give a mixed message: ccomfort or compensation.

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