Last Day in Dunedin

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NZ Day 12

Domination Day

Today was a day of domination. I got up early and went to work with my Uncle. He was kind enough to arrange for me to take my Gov’t correspondence final through his office. So there I was at 10am in the seminar room DOMINATING that final. It didn’t take the entire time for me to do it either. I’m feeling pretty good P = D (pass equals Degree) and that’s what I’m getting not to long from now.

After my final I walked home from the University and got to see a little bit more of Dunedin. It was nice. When I got home I had a bit of lunch and organized some pictures. Then Pip came home and took Sarah and I to see some more of the Dunedin sights.

We went to Baldwin St. which is the steepest street in the world. We were hard core and DOMINATED the street as we walked up it. It was interesting to here local stories about it from Pip. About crazy teenagers making stupid decisions on it. About the local chocolate festivals event involving it. People buy tickets that correspond with numbers on jaw breaker like candies. The candies are released at the top of the street and the first one to cross the finish line at the bottom is the winner. If your number is the winner you will all sorts of prizes. (My cousin Ben was just telling me he was prepared for it and had several tickets that he bought months ago for it.) Unfortunately Sarah and I are missing the whole chocolate festival by about a week. She also told us stories about crazy tourists taking photos of people who live on the street doing things like hanging up their washing.

Once we got to the top we took some time to enjoy the view and take some silly photos. We saw a car full of people who did the lazy but scarier version of driving to the top. They annoyed us a bit because they blocked our view and we didn’t really believe they had accomplished what we had. After we took the much more fun way on the street we headed over to the Steepest Street Gift Shop. Yes there is a gift shop for the steepest street. It sells other NZ things as well but it also sells certificates for climbing the steepest street. I’m trying to reduce clutter in my life so I did not purchase one.

After the steepest street Pip took us to a lookout where we could see the entire city. We looked out and it was beautiful. We could see the peninsula where we were yesterday but the trees were obscuring the view of the Castle. I was amazed at how the landscape seemed flattened from up there. When we were driving around in the city it felt like the hills were massive but being up at the lookout they were definitely dwarfed.

On our way from the Lookout to the Botanical Gardens Pip took us down the neighboring street to the steepest street. I’m not gonna lie it was like going on a rollercoaster when you come over the edge and can’t see where it stops. It was also interesting to note that the street was too steep for asphalt and had to be paved with concrete. The asphalt would just slip down before it set. Craziness.

At the Botanical Gardens we made a quick stop at the aviary and saw some more Keas and other big birds. Some of them even conversed with us. Our conversations were mostly Hellos intermixed with grunts and screeches. They were quite cute.

Now we will have a nice relaxing evening at the house but will have to get ready for our big drive to Mount Cook tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll play another game of Stonewall tonight. It sure is fun to hang out with my cousins………..

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Photos

Look how steep
no I'm kneeling. I'm standing straight up on the steepest part of the hill.

Crooked House
Was the house built crooked or was it the street?

Kea
He kept trying to eat me as I got close.