New Zealand Posting No. 3

There's so much to report that I don't know where to start. I guess I'll begin with what I did yesterday. I left Dunedin by train north along the west coast to a place called Palmerston. Although the journey would only take about 45 minutes by car, the train meanders and climbs and takes double that time - 90 minutes. We started off with views of the Dunedin Port followed by views of the Pacific Ocean, with beautiful mountains thrown in for good measure.

At Palmerston, there was a bus waiting for us and we were driven to the gold mines that are inland and still operating. Actually, some of the 'mines' look like wrecked mountains. They extract the rock and then 'melt' it down so that they can syphon off the gold dust and eventually make gold bars. I find it hard to conceive of rock being melted! But that's what they do.

Lunch was served in an old mining town hotel - a hot dinner that was followed by a delicious dessert.

Eventually, we were driven to a small town where our train was waiting to take us back to Dunedin, via the Taieri Gorge. More spectacularity!!! The little train chugged up steep mountains and ran along a most impressive gorge.

I left at 9:30 a.m. and arrived back at the Dunedin Station at 6:30 in the evening. What a wonderful adventure!!