Taieri Gorge is magnificent

Definitely on my Recommended To Visit list. I’ll post photos in a day or so (currently sitting in The Octagon connected through SpongeFromHoyts.net.nz and nibbling on dinner in preparation for coaching up the coast to Christchurch) but for what is basically a big hole in the ground with lotsa rocks and some water, it’s amazing.

Ten of the LCA crew headed out this morning. We calculate well over a thousand photographs between four of us and were wondering how far from VR capability we are.

The web booking system for the train confirmed acceptance of my card on Friday, but this morning there was no sign of the transaction having ever happened. And incidentally, it had allowed me to book for a trip that they don’t run on Sunday mornings. Yay, a web application. Leap. Click.

The train staff were very friendly and helpful. The run is basically up from Dunedin, turn right at Green Island and wiggle up the Gorge to a blinkanyamistit on the shoulder of the range behind. The Gorge itself is gorgeous, a pretty river flowing at the bottom of a deep groove in the landscape sporting some impressive rock formations. The water is very clear, so you can see all of the bottom all of the time even if it is tinged with green. There are nice beaches and “interesting” beaches (rounded rocks or sharp rocks), rocky shelves, bushy bits, foresty bits, pools, rapids, bridges spanning impressive chasms, a couple of idyllic farm-stay thingies (one of them accessible only by rail) and so on. Magnificent!