1-10-11

More Dunedin

 

 

 

 

Slate roofs on the older buildings. They do not use three tab asphalt singles down here at all. It is either this slate, corrugated galvanized iron for tile.

The Hogwartz hostel is just up the street from the Speights Brewery. They have a brewery tour as well as trinket shop. This is on the street where you can get water and I see folks bringing jugs to fill. 

A place to lock up your bicycle.

They saw me coming and slammed the door.

Here ya go girls, the tanks at the Cadbury Chocolate factory that is downtown. This is a BIG factory and takes up a big block with their buildings.

Some travelers from OZ on this Ducati. A Testrastrada model. This is Dicon who is the guy I met in Arizona that planed the seed of going to New Zealand. I met hinm here in Dunedin and we have been staying at the Hogwartz waiting for Monday, which is today, to pick up his bike which is was shipped over in a container from Los Angles. As I write he is on the phone to the shipper getting details on how to pick up his bike. Off  to get the bike now..

Robert Burns statue down in the Center of town.

As I was walking by I happened to see his boots….. hob nail boots !!!

 

Dicon talking with Robert (the shipper).

The way I think it goes is that Robert buys bikes from insurance auctions as well as cars that people buy in the states and he has them loaded in shipping containers and they are delivered to Dunedin. He said that he had imported several of the Ural sidecar rigs and one guy has bought them all. This Duki was sure crashed hard.

This Ural is a two wheel drive model.

Robert said the guy that brought this Nomad in will probably work on it for a couple of years to completely restore it and it will be worth +/- $100,000 here.

Tere is a Comet convertible under here as well as every inch stuffed with tires, parts and stuff. These guys wanted to know what I was taking pictures for. I told them I worked for the CIA and just documenting what they were doing…. The guy on the right owns the bike below.

I think he said it was a 1972 Moto Guzi and he loved it

Next stop was the Customs Service where Dicon had to post them $875NZD cash and another $35 for fees. He will get the $875 back when he ships the bike home, but the kicker is that they take their time to send him a check and then the bank screws ya $70 just to cash the check. Shipping the bike here cost Dicon $500USD and he figures it will cost about $1500 to ship it back to Los Angeles. For me, I would have had to either had to take a bike to LA or have it shipped there and it wouldn’t have made it here until now. That is why I just flew down and bought one, that way I got to ride another month and didn’t have to sit around with the New Zealand bug spinning around in my head waiting for the bike to get here to ride.

 

 

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