I immediately set off for a town walkabout. One of the first things I saw was the magnificnet train station. For supper I found a fish restaurant that served blue code, which had been highly recommended. It was excellent.
Train station
The next day (February 26) I went first to the Olveston house, a magnificent old home built around 1905 for David Theomin, a wealthy businessman. The woodwork in the home is quite magnificent.
Olveston House
My next stop was the Otago Museum, then a guided walk around town with a guide whose love of Dunedin was positively contagious. My day ended at the Fortune Theatre, where I saw an excellent performance of a play called Outside Mullingar.
Dunedin has a different feel than any of the other cities I have visited in New Zealand. The architecture of most of the late 19th century buildings is Victorian or Edwardian, so it feels quite European. In fact it’s called the Edinburgh of the south. Also, it’s a university town, home to the University of Otago, and is filled with students, who are just now returning to class after their summer break. With students come funky stores and restaurants. The city is built around a central octagon. Inside the octagon are gardens and lots of places to sit, and around it are cafes, restaurants, galleries, a magnificent church and town hall, and a few stores. It’s a busy place! The population of Dunedin is about 125,000.
Buildings around the octagon
Grand old church
Typical little home
The city is also very hilly. Looking up some of the very steep streets I have the sense it must look like San Francisco (although I have never been there). It claims to have the world’s steepest street. I can’t imagine it could be any steeper than streets I have already been on.
This isn't the steepest street!
On my last full day (February 27th) in Dunedin I started the day with a walk to the Botanic Gardens. On the way I discovered just how many parks there are in the city. It’s really quite wonderful. I was clearly looking lost at one point and a woman stopped to help me who had moved to Dunedin from Kingston, Ontario, where I went to university. Small world.
The Gardens are outstanding. Certainly one of the best I have seen. Perfectly maintained, and the plants and shrubs are very well labelled. Like everything else in the city, it’s built on a steep hillside so getting to the top was my morning’s exercise. A perfect setting for the garden. It has streams, bridges, forested areas, and numerous paths. I could have spent the entire day there but had only a few hours.
Rock garden at the Botanic Gardens
On my way to the i-site to pick up the tour to the Otago Peninsula I walked through the University of Otago. It opened about 1870, and the buildings dating from that time are very impressive. A decided contrast to the newer buildings on the campus.
University of Otago, one of the old buildings
.... and one of the new
The Otago Peninsula is home to albatross, sea lions, penguins and fur seals, and on the tour we saw them all, both from the water and on land. Tour groups to the Otago Peninsula are small and the numbers entering the reserve are carefully controlled. Our guide was terrific, and clearly devoted to the cause of trying to increase the population of some of the endangered species. He was very knowledgeable. One thing I learned from him is that the reason New Zealand has so many flightless birds is that they once had no predators, so didn’t need to fly. Predators like rats, cats and possums came with the Europeans in the 1800s, and a number of those birds are now extinct, or endangered. There are apparently about 30 million possums in New Zealand, about 30 million more than they’d like.
Blue penguin
Fur seal
My bus for my next stop, Te Anau, did not leave until almost 2:00 on February 28th, which meant I could squeeze in a visit to the Early Settlers Museum. I was so impressed. It opened in 1908 but has recently undergone a major redo and the building itself is fantastic. Part of it was once the old art deco style railway building, which they have retained, and to it is attached a very modern addition. They've made this work very well. It’s a very long building so the exhibits are on one level, and in chronological order. What a concept! Not something I’ve found in all museums here. It was like taking a walk through history.
The museum included a number of re-creations, for example of the interior of the ships that brought the first settlers over in 1849, and also the interior of a settler’s home. As well, there was a whole room full of photographs of settlers from the mid-1800s. It helped make you feel you were travelling back in time.
Recreation of ship's living quarters
(Actual thing was
dark and gloomy; my flash did this)
Instead of labeling exhibits, they were displayed on a computer screen beside the exhibit and you simply touched the screen to get more information. Throughout the museum there were computer screens with people’s pictures, and when you clicked on a face you saw that person sharing their recollections of different periods in the city’s history. Such a good idea.
The museum included displays up to very recent history, like the original computers, which almost filled a room. While there I overheard a father explaining to his children what a turntable (one of the exhibits) did! They are museum pieces now!
I’ve liked Dunedin far more than I expected to, and suspect I’d like it even more if I had more time there.
