Mystery Object #2

 

Indeed! It is a souvenir from the Dunedin trip.

A beautiful new blue golf towel to contrast nicely with my Blue Shark bag.

The writing on it reads"Scotland .The Home of Golf"

Well there I was in Dunedin-the Edinburgh of the South!
And incidentally, Otago was the first province in New Zealand in which the Royal and Ancient game was played.
So on a cold wet day when no golf could be played I took myself off to the Scottish Shop on George Street to try and find a lovely pair of Tartan socks in the family tartan (either Sinclair for my paternal side or Rose for my maternal side) or perhaps a new scarf.
  Alas such socks do not exist much to my surprise and the scarfs were a tad pricey for my golfing budget. Perhaps a Tam'o'shanter then? But none to be had in the correct tartans.

Then I saw these golf towels-a fitting and affordable souvenir and a much needed replacement for my lovely St Andrews one which had become a casualty of the arduous terrain of the Belleknowes Golf Club.


Let me explain.....

On the 4th day of June,with the full moon due to rise on Queens Birthday Monday, I took myself off to the 9 hole golf course situated in the Green Belt of Dunedin city.
Belleknowes in fact is the closest course to the original site of the Dunedin Golf Club,the first to be established in New Zealand(1871)
My scrapbook records the  words-"super challenging and like nothing I have played before! A full body workout just getting up and down the course."
My golf book notes that 'a tin hat would be desirable on a busy day' as this is a very short course with many criss-crossing fairways. Luckily it is 4pm on a holiday Monday so it is not super busy and with the shortest day not far away I will need to keep moving to complete the round in the daylight.

For some reason I thought this course would be easy after the arduous Port Chalmers course I had played the day before.

 But this is Dunedin we are talking about.
It is a hilly place! 
No long,wide flat fairways with a few dips and hollows as we experience in Canterbury.
No gentle rising slopes up to the greens.Nope we are talking serious hill climbs here.


So ..........

The most challenging holes for me were the 7th and 8th.


To get to the tee box of the 7th involved dragging my trundler over a road and down a set of awkward steps:

 
Then down a long steep path. 

 

My drive then had to clear a deep gulley but the downward slope certainly helped the ball to carry and I made the green in one miraculous shot.

The Green in One

But if you walk down a big hill you have to walk back up it.

The 8th was gruelling!
The slope gradient so great that at one point as I pushed my trundler up the hill with the handle totally parallel to the ground I trip over my own golf towel,ripping it right off the chain attaching it to my trundler and falling into the mud myself in the process!


And that was the tragic demise of the lovely St. Andrews souvenir golf towel.

Upward to the 8th!

 
When I finally holed out on the 8th I turned to see the full moon rising over Dunedin city.
Perfect!

Mostly I played my Dunedin games in the late afternoons so was often finishing my round just as the magic colours of twilight played on the hills and water.Sometimes I quite forgot the game and just became immersed in the beauties surrounding me and took endless photos trying to capture the magic.
Mark Twain supposedly said that golf ruins a completely good walk but not so for me when I play at my preferred pace! I get to play a round of golf AND see all the birds stars and moon I desire.
However,occasionally this distractedness leads to unforeseen consequences!

Take this innocent attempt at an Arty shot:

Luminous ball and Moon

I was so busy trying to line up the moon and the luminous ball for this shot that I had to play the 9th in much faded light.Not only that but having dragged the trundler back up the steep path and the steps and across the road I discovered that I had forgotten to put the ball back in my pocket and my luminous Pinnacle is now lost somewhere between the 8th and 9th.

Bugger!

And just how all this led to me taking a precarious road least travelled will have to wait until the next installment!