Dunedin : Part 6 - Day 7: Taeri Gorge Railway

Day 7

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 7.

14/5 Day 7: Taeri Gorge Railway from Dunedin to Hindon

Costs

Day 7

(1) Lunch at a food court - Tonkotsu pork ramen $16.90, Salmon sashimi don $17.90 

(2) Ticket for Taeri Gorge Railway - $60

The Story

140523: Today, we went on a train ride from Dunedin to Hindon. I have gained a lot of interest in travelling by train and appreciating sceneries from another perspective as well as comparing trains at the same time. We departed from Dunedin Railway Station at 10am and arrived at Hindon at 11.20am. I thought there will be a small cafe at Hindon but it was a tiny station house and a view of the mountains. I admit, I was disappointed. We stayed for 1 hour and departed the same way back.  There was a train attendant on board who shared information on the train and the views we passed by so it was an informative train ride. 

Funny that the door handle in this train car is very low!

That is me trying to catch a glimpse of the bridge that we crossed over.

I would not recommend this train ride. It is too expensive for $60 / SEK397. For that amount, I could buy a 3.5 hour train ticket from Stockholm to Gothenburg located at the west coast of Sweden. 

After the train ride, we went to a shopping mall to exchange currency and had lunch. I owed my sister some NZD now and surprisingly, it is cheaper to exchange in Dunedin than in Auckland. In Dunedin, it is NZD1 = EUR0,6132. In Auckland, it is NZD1 = EUR0,6153. According to my sister, there is lesser sales for Euro in Dunedin and hence, it is cheaper to encourage exchange. The lunch in the food court was a disappointment. I ordered tonkotsu pork ramen and the pork slices were so thin. I thought they were mushroom slices. 

I flew back to Sweden the next day. 

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Here are the list of places I went. You can click on the link and be directed to the posts immediately. 

Day 1 - Arrived Auckland and visited Botanic Gardens, Weta Unleashed

Day 2 - Drive to Waipoua Kauri Forest

Day 3 - Drive to Kohimarama Beach and Mount Eden

Day 4 - Flight to Dunedin - no post

Day 5 - Graduation robe collection at Otago University. Went to Royal Albatross Centre to see blue penguins.

Day 6 - Convocation day!

Day 7 - Taeri Gorge Railway experience (this post)

Day 8 - Flight back to Stockholm - no post

I have mentioned some of my expenses in each post and I did have other expenses which are not illustrated in the respective posts. For total and different category of expenses, I will sum it here.  

1) Transport - Flight SEK27 071,67, Airport shuttle Dunedin - SEK130
2) Accommodation (Airbnb) - SEK785,72 per person

3) Food - SEK1 554,35 (my expenses)

4) Car rental - SEK975,62 per person

5) Activities - SEK1 330,35 per person

6) Petrol - SEK306,31 (shared)

7) NZeTA (Permit to enter New Zealand) - SEK337,43 ($52)

Total Cost for the trip SEK33 527,45 for 8 days, 7 nights. The flight ticket took up 81% of the cost. THAT IS CRAZY!