Dunedin

Dunedin, on the east coast of South Island, is a city sprawling up the hills at the end of the huge inlet called Otago Harbour. It is the site of the University of Otago so the number of its inhabitants is swelled greatly by students. It is also the place where many immigrants from Scotland settled (Dunedin is the alternative name for Edinburgh).
When we arrived on Saturday it was Freshers' Week and part of the long main shopping street was closed in preparation, we were told, for a procession, led by bag pipes, of students dressed in togas ( i.e. white sheets).
Although keen to avoid the general mayhem we suspected this event would create, we nevertheless visited the following important landmarks before moving on:-

1. Sudz Laundromat.
Here the owner was very helpful, and after having a moan about the weather (See post 'Weed whacking 2' below), kept an eye on our washing and loaded it into the dryer while we did our shopping.
2. Pak n' Save Supermarket.
Unfortunately I was served on the check out by the first unhelpful person I've come across since arriving in NZ. She gave me a plastic bag without explaining that I would have to pay for it. She remained silent while I struggled to get my credit card to work so that the customer behind me in the queue had to help me out. She loaded my shopping into a trolley, then said that, because I didn't have one to leave in its place (I'd used a basket), I couldn't take the trolley away to the packing area, and began to load the next lot of shopping into the same trolley before I could pack mine. I suppose it would be unfair to say something rude about the Scottish here....