skyring

I’d like to say that Dunedin is a city with an old body and a young heart, it being very much a university town, but all I can see as I sit at the window of my Internet café are young bodies.

Fabulous young women in their summer clothing. There are young men as well, just out of the awkwardness of their teens, but they don’t hold my interest.

The best part is that the most fabulous young woman of them all walked along the street, opened the door of the café, walked behind the counter and commenced serving out the lattes and mochaccinos. The proprietor calls her “Princess”, and she’s got my vote for Miss Dunedin 2006. I’m coming back again.

It’s amazing how many Dunedin residents are between the ages of 18 and 28. I think it’s something like a quarter of the population, and certainly a higher percentage of those visible out and about on the streets, walking, talking, laughing, skipping and dancing along.

Even more are flooding in, now that the university year is beginning. I drove out to the airport, and after watching a patrol vehicle shoo the sheep off the runway, I saw the flight from Auckland arrive, and a solid three-quarters of the full planeload were university students. I swear that thebiblioholic was the oldest passenger, and he’s not what I’d call more than thinking about middle-age.

He looked remarkably chipper for someone who had just spent twenty-five hours flying day and night across the USA and then the Pacific. Me, I would have collapsed into the nearest bed and slept until my body’s clock told me it was a decent hour back home. Like half past Tuesday. But no, we had a quick stroll around the city centre and then launched into the first official activity of the convention.

Boreal, Rarsberry and three local BookCrossers were waiting for us outside the gates of the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. Friday at one and they were keen to show outsiders the city’s second-hand book shops. Of course we had jumped at the chance. I’m a second-hand bookseller myself, and I’m always keen to see how they do things elsewhere. And maybe buy a book or two.

Friends, the next four hours were spent in a state of bliss. This may have been aided by a glass of Steinlager – New Zealand’s prizewinning beer – consumed at half-time, but there is something about books and BookCrossers that keeps a goofy grin on my face.

I lost count after half a dozen bookshops – and the beer consumed at the official Dunedin BookCrossing meeting zone – but let me tell you, we scoured those shops clean. Staggering under the weight of our purchases, we made it back to the city centre and dispersed to our various motels, hostels and houses to gloat over our gains and/or get our head down for a well-earned kip in the case of those who had been on the other side of the planet earlier that day.

I spent a pleasant half hour in the company of a student from overseas (Auckland) who was dossing down at my hostel until she could find permanent accommodation. Young and cheerful and a bottle of beer in front of me, she sat beside me on the stair while we waited for our laundry machines to finish their cycles. Naturally I took the chance to talk about BookCrossing, with the aid of a book I just happened to have on me.

I may have made a convert. Maybe she’ll head upstairs to the hostel bookshelf, where I’ve salted away a dozen likely titles. I love hostel bookshelves – books there come from all over the world and have a chance of jetting away.

And then I scrubbed up and walked down to the Meet’n’Greet to kick of the convention. More on that later, but I can say in the meantime with absolute assurance. There’s one thing that unites BookCrossers. Regardless of age, they are young at heart.