Lightning strikes thrice

February 10, 2005

I'm having a hell of a time trying to find a place in the Catlins that will let me upload my pictures, so that will probably have to wait a day or two when I get to Invercargill. When I get there I'll try to post a ton of photos to make up for their absence up to this point.
Anyways, let me go back to Thursday the 7th, if you will. I spent the day running errands (getting a haircut, buying hiking supplies) and visiting minor tourist sites. These included Baldwin St., which is certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the steepest street in the world! Of course, I had to walk to the top and back, and it was plenty of work.
My last errand was to make a run to The Warehouse (like Wal-Mart, only crappier, if that's possible) to buy some plastic storage bins to organize Blue Steel's jumbled trunk. While I was there, it suddenly started pouring outside...and I mean POURING. Apparently the sky dropped 37 mm in 1 hour, and half of that was in the first 15 minutes. It was Dunedin's worst flash flood in 5 years, and total damages were estimated to be in the millions. I wandered around the Warehouse and waited for the worst of the rain to pass, and when I finally emerged, there were rivers flowing in the streets. It was crazy.
I had a quick dinner back at the Elm Lodge, but I didn't feel like reading and no English-speakers were around to chat, so I decided to venture out for coffee. Well, about 10 minutes into the journey the rain picked up again, so I decided to turn around. I was rounding the corner to go back to the hostel, and guess who I saw? Yep, it was Hanne again. I was beginning to think that maybe the gods were trying to send me a message about this woman or something. In a display of Norwegian hardiness and stoicism, she was trudging back from the convenience store in full wool garb, so of course she was soaked, but it didn't seem to bother her. Since it was such a serendipitous meeting, we decided to turn around and go out for coffee together. We went to a cafe called The Percolator and discussed music, among other things. I displayed my knack for "Name That Tune" by recognizing all the songs that were playing within the first measure or two. Hanne tried in vain to think of a Norwegian band that I might have heard of before. A good time was had by all.
On Tuesday I continued South to the Catlins region. I think I'll write about it in a separate post.