Driving back to Queenstown today (we are flying home tomorrow), so we thought we would have a bit more of a look in Dunedin then drive back in the early afternoon. The castle room rate included a breakfast, and honestly wasn’t expecting much more than the usual buffet continental, however it included two full cooked options. The pancakes sounded awesome with the berry compote with Banana and granola topping, and yes up there with the best pancakes I’ve ever had. Coffee nothing special, just French press.
Sharon wanted to check out more of the second hand book stores, Dunedin has quite a few and apparently has the best ones in New Zealand. The best one ”Hard to Find Books” and the second best one “Dead Souls”.
Before heading into Dunedin we drove down to the end of the Peninsular to look through the Royal Albatross centre. Didn’t do any tours there but the centre is great.
I took the car for a charge whilst Sharon was shopping. I’m in the middle of nowhere in an industrial type complex. Thought I’d check for coffee, not expecting anything close and Google tells me there is a cafe in the garden centre next door. I went in and it’s massive, more like a small garden centre attached to the cafe. Thought I’d have heaps of time to get a coffee, but seems every retired person in Dunedin was there and it took ages to get one. Car had almost charged before I got my coffee.
The trip to Dunedin was a little slow with the condition of the highway and lots of roadworks, so I was worried about taking a more “scenic” route incase the road was even worse. Looking at the maps we could take a different route north via Palmerston which adds only 10 minutes. I also find out the its known as the “Pigroot” route, named after a hotel called the Pigroot from gold rush times.
My inner 14 year old is already sniggering about this (so is my outer 53 year old) and then I discover it also crosses the Shag river. This stuff just writes itself…… That seals the deal, we have to take that road just for the juvenile laughs. I wanted to get a pic of the sign over the Shag river, however the crossing was narrow and no where to stop.
Turns out it was a great decision to go this way, the Pigroot route road (State Highway 86) was in way better condition as well as flatter and straighter in most parts. Could actually get the car up to speed limit for most of it. Much less traffic too, we were the only car for most of it. This road may not be a great decision in winter as it goes through higher country which is likely why the signposted route goes the more southern highway 6.
It's all about the coffee 