What’s the Gaelic for Edinburgh?

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Dunedin! Which is where we spent a wonderful day! The weather is still being kind to us, so the heritage architecture of which Kiwis are justifiably proud looked stunning in bright sunshine against blue skies.

The locals are proud of their Scottish Heritage - Dunedin being known as the Edinburgh of New Zealand ... it even has Princes Street as one of its main thoroughfares. It is also said to be the best preserved Victorian and Edwardian heritage city in the Southern Hemisphere. Some of these buildings are very utilitarian and dour, although some, such as the railway station, are beautifully finished in art nouveau. There is even a statue of Robbie Burns in the Octagon, the heart of the city (they’ve adopted him as their bard, which is not surprising compared to some of the other poetry we’ve heard).

However, Dunedin is also famous for being home to NZ’s largest university, the University of Otago. The 25,000 students are known as ‘scarfies’ and they add a vibrant younger edge to the city.

We had a wonderful time, wandering the streets and art galleries, spending quite a while in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Some of the pictures were absolutely stunning, some were old masters (including two of Suffolk’s finest Gainsborough and Constable) ... and some were distinctly odd ... but hey! that’s art! We enjoyed every minute - and some of the odder ones provoked more discussion than the old masters, which I suppose is their purpose.

We saw various churches, some of which are still being used for their original purpose, but several that are now restaurants or apartments, but my favourite is without a doubt First Church on Bell Hill. Needless to say it was the first church to be build in Dunedin and it must have been stunning in the Oamaru white stone before pollution added some greys and blacks. Having said that it is still pretty good! There was a service in process when we arrived, and the congregation was Maori and their singing sounded like Polynesian South Sea music, it was beautiful! Hopefully John got some good photos as people left the Church, as today was obviously the day to wear hats!

We had stopped in the Law Courts Hotel for a beer and a ‘dressed pie’ for lunch. We discovered that a dressed pie has 2 scoops of mash on top of it, is laced with peas and gravy ... and has a helping of chips on the side. It was surprisingly good! It was quite difficult finding somewhere to stop as today is Mothers’ Day for the Southern Hemisphere, so every eatery was full to bursting. It was also Dunedin University’s graduation day yesterday, so the town was also full of proud parents sightseeing with their clever offspring!

We continued on our heritage architecture walk down to the railway station, and discovered they also had an art show in progress. That, and a visit to the Otago Settlers museum which had an art show about war brides, made us feel very cultural!

It was quite late when we took off North - we are stopping in Trotters Gorge for the night - and just hoping it doesn’t rain too heavily because we won’t get over the ford and up the steep access road if it does!!

So there we have #49 - Dunedin City, and only 2 creeks worthy of note: Muddy and Flagyswamp ... sort of gives you the idea though.

And for some (Kim!) a successful day as I’ve managed to get through the whole day without mentioning quilting ... uh oh - that’s just blown it!!

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Comments

[Kim]

Zip that lip
You just can't help yourself, can you? We've just bought a minature sewing machine, it fits nicely in the cupboard! It's possible it may see a bit of material at some time in the future. But doubt it will ever make a q..lt. Mustn't say the word don't want to pick up these Valerisms.

[anonymous]

We can't believe how fortunate you have been with the weather! So much better than our more or less unrelenting wind, rain and grey skies in November! Hope your luck lasts!