On days 13-15, I planned to travel south from Auckland by train, ferry, and bus, with the end goal being my Couchsurf in Mosgiel, NZ, a town 8 miles east 0f Dunedin, NZ which is the “college town”. The entire area is called GigCity. Once there, I planned to stay for the rest of September, with three main goals
- Learn to Surf
- Complete my 20th Scuba Dive
- Find a church I could attend for 3 weeks
An interesting side note – currently the exchange rate between New Zealand Dollars (NZD) and US Dollars (USD) is .66. If you think about this a different way, if I spend $1 here in NZD, it is only .66 USD. This means I’m saving .33 on each dollar. More than just coincidence when you consider that I am “trinitydreamer” with an obsession for 3’s!
Well, my therapist did say I would be encountering more 3’s in my adventures, and this just proves he was right. He was a very wise man!
Day 13 (Journey #1 – Train) – In my previous post, I had mentioned that I needed to be at the train station by 7 am for my 7:45 am train to Wellington. So I was up by 5:30 am to get a shower, pack up my backpack and suitcase, and catch a bus to the Auckland Strand train station, in downtown Auckland. I was at the bus stop by 6:38 am, but the 6:45 am bus never showed up, and I most certainly did not want to miss my train, so instead I booked a $15 (NZD) Uber to go the 4 miles to the station. I’m very thankful that we now have Uber (which only recently came to New Zealand); it makes travel so much easier!
My epic train journey began at 7:45 am and wouldn’t end until 7 pm that night. While the train didn’t offer any type of WiFi services, I did have 3G and 4G coverage for large portions of the trip, so I was a posting fanatic as I detailed my journey south. I didn’t have the chance to depart the train, so everything occurred within 3-4 cars on the train.
Without further ado, I give you first of 3 “Great Journeys of New Zealand” (Lots of video links below and any picture will maximize if you click on it. I did embed a few more spectacular videos, so hopefully this doesn’t slow down the loading of this page. Please comment if it does)
THE FIRST HOUR OF THE JOURNEY
PLAYING CARDS
After hitting a couple of dead zones, I realized my inventory WAS missing something…playing cards. When I went to get a coffee at the cafe car, I found these playing cards, which gave me the inspiration for the title of this post! I played solitaire and shuffled cards when I hit other dead zones.
HALFWAY THERE
I was soon going to discover that the second half of this journey had some AMAZING sites!
TUNNELS!
PLAINS…VALLEYS…MOUNTAINS…OH, MY!
MOUNTAINS!!!
In the last picture above, you can see Mount Ruapehu in the distance. It is an active stratovolcano, the largest active volcano in New Zealand, and it has three main peaks: Tahurangi (2,797 m), Te Heuheu (2,755 m) and Paretetaitonga (2,751 m). There is a deep active crater between the peaks and it fills with water between major eruptions!
Ruapehu crater link – Picture from Wikipedia
I wasn’t sure if we would get any closer to it, but we definitely did!
RIVERS!!!
SUN & CLOUDS 
These shots were taken in late afternoon.
INSIDE THE TRAIN🚂
I lucked out as I didn’t have anyone in the seat next to me for the entire train trip. This meant I could spread out and had access to all my ways to keep myself entertained. Often I wouldn’t need anything beyond my TaoTronics bluetooth headphones, because listening to music and watching the majestic scenery pass was very satisfying.
VIDEO SURPRISE!!!
I may have been a little excited when I discovered the Open Air cart at the front of the train. For some reason, I didn’t explore the whole train until 3/4 of the trip was over. But I still had a lot of fun with the open air car for the remainder of the journey, as you can tell by the video.
I also took my Bose Soundcolor II Bluetooth speaker and set it up in a corner of the open air car. Then I had a little impromptu dance party. I wish I could have recorded a video, but you actually can’t play music and record a video at the same time on your phone. I did make several other people smile as they watched me jam out to the songs on my ReDefined playlist. And I also discovered a new song that day that will go in a future playlist…
Thunderclouds ft. Sia, Diplo, Labrinth – LSD
SUNSET 🌅
As the sun set on the horizon, I got a few more pictures from the open air car. I especially like pictures 4 and 5, as they really look like a Dragon and a Gryphon squaring off for a fight!
OCEAN!!! 🌊
Night🌙…and selfies!
As night descended upon the island, they closed up the open air car. I got a few last pictures, discovering that I had broken a rule in my earlier video about discovering the open air car. I was just way too excited! We also passed through some more tunnels.
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The final steps of Journey #1
My 13th day in New Zealand ended in Wellington, the capital. I’m planning to stay there for a month in February 2019. I had booked a cute Airbnb for around $55 for the night (it also included a cereal and hot chocolate breakfast). I did try to find someone from Grindr to have a dinner companion, but as usual, the only profiles that responded were only interested in hooking up!
Day 14 (Journey #2 – Ferry) – After a restful night in my Airbnb, I awoke at 5am (as my body got its required 6 hours of sleep from 11 to 5). I really wish I could get 8 hours, but my body has seemed to need it since my divorce. When I awoke, I thought I heard someone whistling, and couldn’t understand why they kept whistling the same 5 notes over and over. In order to block it out, I put in my headphones and completed a few quests in Hearthstone. I used to play the game incessantly in Portland (usually my hour long commutes were 100% game time) and I even won a few local tournaments. However, since the newest expansion, Witchwood, I only play to complete my quests and get packs, so that my account stays relatively current.
By 6am, I went to shower and that’s when I realized my mystery whistler was actually a bird call and that’s why it was repeating over and over. I shared this with Johnathan, my whistling brother. It made us both laugh as we had some contentious disagreements this past summer on how much whistling was appropriate. And it was especially funny since Kendra, his wife, had said J’s whistling reminded her of birds.
I took a fun little selfie, and then gave a shout-out to some new followers on Instagram by showing off my tattoo and a heart I drew in the steamed up shower walls.
I was also very proud of the Les Mills shirt that Ian gave me before I left Auckland. He said it made my arms (biceps and triceps) look really good. I also took a self outside on the street, as I was now on Great Journey #2.
A few minutes after I took the selfie, it started raining, but not enough for me to call a taxi or Uber. Instead, I just put up the rainfly on my backpack and trudged the mile to the ferry terminal. On the way, I saw a cool tree, but I haven’t been able to discover what type of tree it is. If you know, please comment and I’ll update this with it’s name.
I also took a nice video of the water swirling next to the ship as we departed. I also documented how much exercise I had and how many calories I burned by walking that mile dragging my 50lb suitcase behind me and carrying 35-40 lbs of scuba gear and technology in my two backpacks.
I got settled on deck 8 for about an hour, but then went exploring and found Deck 10! The wind was intense as you can see by my two videos.
I did a little more exploring (they had a cinema playing Oceans 8 and Mama Mia! Here we go again, a play area for kids, a few different areas to eat, as well as two floors for cars that were making the journey). I found another great place to take a reflection pic, but soon we were pulling into Picton, NZ, a small town of around 1,000 people.
I got lunch at Subway and used their meager WiFi (30 minutes or 100mb of data usage), but I did get a cute video that I posted with the following comment – “Beach Boys and Birds??? Who needs a broom when you can get this kind of help! I kinda feel like I’m in a Disney movie.”
I then moved along to the Cafe Cortado and got a hot chocolate. I tried to make a smilie face with the marshmallows and foam.
They also had unlimited usage WiFI, but only for 30 minutes. This was enough time though, because it was now 2:30 pm and I could start heading to my Airbnb for the night. (check-in was at 3 pm). It was quite the adventure!
After resting for about an hour, the sun came out and I was able to explore Picton for a few hours. The second picture is the pedestrian bridge I crossed in my video earlier. They also had a sizeable harbor for only having 1000 residents.
There was a war memorial in the center of town. It was dedicated to soldiers who participated in the various wars of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Below the memorial there were also artistic renditions of the town and harbour.
I found a small park and discovered a tree planted by the Prince of Wales in 1920. In the second pic, it is the tree off to the right.
I also saw a Cross way up on a hill overlooking the town. In the next picture, you can barely see it (click the picture to go full-size and see if you can find it!). I also discovered an interesting looking seed pod, but again, I can’t find what type of tree it belongs to, so if you know, please comment so I can update this post.
I really wanted to hike up to the cross, but it wasn’t on any trail that I could determine, and in hiking up, I eventually came to a dead end (at a very nice house with some delicious looking lemons!). I took one picture to show how high I got, and then went in search of food.
I discovered a fried food feast at Fergies – Fish n Chips – Kebabs. The $15 seafood basket at 4 fried mussles, 2 fried squid rings, 4 fried fish bites, 2 fried crabsticks, and chips (French Fries). I also purchased a $2 can of tomato sauce, which was a poor substitute for ketchup, but it was better than nothing. I only finished about 3/4 of the basket before I called it a night.
And so my 2nd great journey came to a close in Picton, NZ. It was also the end of my first two weeks in New Zealand and I was amazed at how much distance I had covered.
I did end up burning up my electric toothbrush charger as the converters I bought didn’t play nice with the charger. After about 5 minutes of charging, there was a pop and smoke smell. I had killed it, so I would need to find a new one once I got to Dunedin.
Day 15 (Journey #3 – Bus) – For my third great journey, I was again up at 5:30 am so that I could shower, pack, and get to the bus terminal (which was also at the ferry terminal, so it was a trek back across the bridge!). On the way there, I encountered some very persistent bathrooms that wanted to be used…
At the bus stop, I met Kath, from England’s Cumbria county, and after I started sharing my story, she confirmed that hers was remarkably similar. She was also on a travel visa here after ending a relationship and quitting her job (in IT). She loves dance/techno music like me, and she wants to change careers after her journey here in New Zealand. She started a few months before me, and will end in December, but hopefully we will meet up again. She was taking the bus to Christchurch and then renting a car and exploring the area.
The bus showed up, and I got settled on the top deck while Kath had been smart and paid the extra $10 to be on the lower deck which had better seats and didn’t sway so much. I was just happy to be on my last day of extensive travel.
The bus route ran parallel to the shore for many miles.
We stopped in Kaikoura for a 30 minute break. That is where Kath and I talked more about our journeys and stories, and I shared attachment theory with her. She immediately saw the value in it and was excited to dig into Attached (Attached – The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find-And Keep-Love)
As usual, I was very bad about getting pictures, so you can only see Kath in the video very briefly on the right side. This video shows the approach to the shore of Kaikoura.
But Kath did take a picture of me in Kaikoura. It was rather chilly, so after our walk, we found a local cafe and I got a delicious Meat & Ale pie with a flat white, the signature New Zealand coffee drink.
In the next video, you will see why I couldn’t take the scenic train from Picton to Christchurch. The tracks and roads along the coast were severely damaged in the 2016 earthquake, and they were still doing repairs. The train is set to re-open in December 2018.
The second video shows the precarious turns we did as the bus left the shoreline and headed into the hills. The third video was taken about an hour outside Christchurch.
When we finally arrived in Christchurch, it was close to 1pm. I luckily got a cool video entering the city, which showcases some of the art that adorns the buildings.
After the bus dropped us off, I had 45 minutes to grab lunch. I saw there was a Wendy’s nearby, so went to get a burger, fries, and frosty. On the way, I saw some more street art and murals that resulted in some cool photos.
I’m actually really excited to stay in Christchurch for a couple of reasons. The first reason was my initial experience with the city as there was so much art and interesting landmarks on the bus ride in and out of town. The second reason is that I will have a friend here. One of my best friends, Meagan Powers Conover, had a friend from college who ended up marrying a Kiwi and staying here. Her name is Ali and she is currently living in Christchurch, so I will get to see her and meet her spouse and kids.
Our halfway stop between Christchurch and Dunedin was in Timaru, another small coastal town (there’s a lot of those in New Zealand). We only had a 20 minute stop as we were trying to make up time, so I did a mad dash up to the main street, taking a few pictures and a video.
As I said before, the top deck of the bus did sway a fair bit. Here’s video proof!
I got one more picture before night descended. Once it was dark, I started to do more seat dancing. I even completed all my rings for the day because of it, which is an impressive feat for spending 12 hours on the bus.
I also met a few people because of my seat dancing. A guy next to me tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was okay. When I explained I was dancing, I should him my playlists and we started talking. A few other people around us joined in the conversation and we talked about scuba diving (as several other people also were divers) and the best places to go, as well as the trouble the bus driver had given me earlier.
The driver in Christchurch changed, and the new driver had wanted me to put my scuba backpack in the back of the bus. After I explained it contained very expensive scuba equipment, he said I could leave it on a shelf on the first floor of the bus. I said it had ridden in the overhead bin on the top deck for the entire trip down from Picton, which it had. We had taken very precarious turns and hit many bumps, but it didn’t move and was completely safe.
He however, could not be convinced of that, and I also couldn’t keep it in the seat next to me, since I didn’t pay for that seat (although for the entire trip down to Dunedin, no one ever sat next to me and the bus was only ever 3/4 full). Ultimately, I had to obey as the driver could have left me behind. But I was pretty frustrated with the ambiguity over luggage and storage. Ultimately, it all worked out in the end and my gear was safe when I got off the bus in Dunedin.
I also met Jasmine on the bus. She let me know about an Open Poetry night at the University Book Shop in Dunedin on the 19th. She will be reading a poem, and they will also have an open mic night for poetry, so I think I will go to listen to her poetry and then share a poem of my own. I mean, I have loads of free time and that just sounds like fun, as well as a way to meet other people.
I got into Dunedin around 8:15 pm and Craig was there to pick me up. He is neighbors with Gary, my Couchsurfing contact. Gary reached out to me and offered me a place to stay for the entire month of September, and this was before I had even left the States. After doing some research on him, I felt completely safe to stay for that extended period. Gary is somewhat of a local celebrity with his openness to host travelers. Here is a news story that featured him back in January.
And so Craig drove me to Gary’s place that night, and Gary had prepared a wonderful meal of Meat Pot Pie (my second for the day, although the first was at 9am) and cheesy cauliflower. He then showed me to my room and I crashed. I had finally made it to Dunedin, GigCity, and I now had a month to enjoy it.
This concludes the 3 Great Journeys of New Zealand, at least for awhile. I had a ton of fun on these three days and was able to really appreciate tons of New Zealand.
As for your reward for finishing this post, it’s a song (FYI – it will ALWAYS be a song)…but it’s a song you’ve already discovered earlier in this post. It is LSD’s Thunderclouds! Enjoy! It’s an awesome song with uplifting lyrics, and a poignant music video with some fun dancing.