Mosgiel

It was a cold and wet morning when we packed up to leave Moeraki.  So cold, in fact, we wondered how all those young people from the bus sleeping in tents had got on during the night.  We watched as the wet tents were dismantled, rolled up and packed away into the bus, and they would still be wet when they stopped somewhere down the country in the evening. 

We set off down SH1 along the coastal road, stopping at the old psychiatric hospital Cherry Farm which closed in 1992 and is now home to a growing number of families and some boutique food outlets.  We stopped at Evensdale Cheese – known as the oldest artisan cheesemakers in New Zealand.  There is always room in the fridge for another wedge of cheese, I decided, and we purchased brie, smoked and blue cheeses, yummy indeed.

Evansdale Cheese factory, and Cherry Farm Hospital in it’s heyday

The rain really set in the closer we got to Dunedin and we had forgotten just how steep and hilly the roads were as we got nearer to the city.  Up, up,up we drove, one steep hill after another, then down the other side.  We could hardly see the hills through the rain.  Finally – we must be there, we spotted the sign.  Dunedin is the old Gaelic word for Edinburgh.

But we weren’t stopping in Dunedin city, but travelling a little further on to Mosgiel.  Passing by quaint older Dunedin homes on the hilly suburbs as we drove by.

Our home for the next few days is the A&P grounds in Mosgiel, a great place to stay.  And very well serviced with power sites available, toilets, showers, laundry facilities, water and a dump station, very reasonably priced and everything we need for a comfortable stay.

We have friends to catch up with in Dunedin,  not too far away on the motorway.  Tomorrow we are spending the day with them and exploring this interesting city.