Yup, we've arrived in the seventh-largest city in NZ. The moniker Dunedin is derived from the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh: Dùn Èideann. The first permanent European settlers, two shiploads of pious, hard-working Scots, arrived at Port Chalmers in 1848, including the nephew of Scotland's favourite son, Robbie Burns. A statue of the poet dominates the Octagon, the city's civic heart, and the city even has its own tartan. The settlement was formerly known as New Edinburgh before taking its Gaelic name, the reason being that the rather brash Yankee types in the US had somewhat over-utilised the "New Daa-daa" bit.
Other similarities with Edinburgh include such place names as Princes' Street, Frederick Street, Hanover Street and Moray Place. Coincidentally, Dunedin also happened to tie with Cowdenbeath in the 2017 "The Least Likely Place To Find Something To Do On The Day Before Match Day". In the Octagon we happened to spy British Lions Dan Cole, Mako Vanipola and Rory Best sitting looking morose in a bar (no drink, please we are professional rugby players, now), until after 40 minutes when they sloped off to do some extra sit-ups back at team HQ.
We did, however, manage to find a fabulous airbnb cottage to stay in what was a very overcrowded city with The Big Match on. Sitting above Otago Harbour with amazing views over the Otago Peninsula was Blueridge Cottage, set in some 20 acres of woodland and gardens. Tastefully and lovingly renovated we had a great base for a couple of days.
Roaring fire looks great in the photo, but it conspired to go out every 5 minutes. Ensuing coldness was tempered to some degree by deep red in foreground. Bedroom had a huge Victorian bed with enough eiderdowns and blankets to pin us down for over 8 hours each night.
We arrived at Mount Cargill (it was a long way up!) in balmy temperatures of 17C which also afforded amazing views over Otago Harbour above the haven of Port Chalmers some 300 meters below our cottage.
After hitting Dunedin and scouring the town for some entertainment, we decided to apply a little culture and visited the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum. Here is an exhibition of the timeline from the earliest Maori settlers through the Scots arriving in the 1840s, to other immigrants from other parts of Britain and later from Europe including Lebanese migrants. The displays showed how people lived day-to-day in a growing city right up to more modern times. Diane even got to test-drive the latest must-have transport (stabilisers not included).
We awoke on match day to frankly appalling weather. At the top of the hill we had storm force winds, sleet, horizontal rain - in fact it was almost like being at home. On a wary drive down the steep winding road to Port Chalmers we came across a monument some 30 feet high and dedicated to Captain Scott and the ill-fated Antarctic expedition in 1910. We were unaware that Scott had actually departed from the port below before journeying to his untimely death.
Bizarrely, the car park on the other side of the road to this monument was populated by what appeared to be a desperate gang of feral cockerels apparently abandoned by owners who did not require the male birds. I was all for sacrificing Diane to this evil band of criminals, but in the end we agreed to hightail it over to the Otago Peninsula.
On a filthy day, we weaved our way round the coast road to visit the albatross sanctuary (they had taken a short break to Tahiti), to the yellow-eyed penguin retreat (washing their hair) and finally to lion seal cove (out at the bingo). So we gave up and headed over to the eastern (South Pacific) side of the isthmus. Finally, the sun peeked out briefly, but the wind continued to batter us. So here's some photos of a bedraggled pair of tourists;
Finally, we made in down to St Clair, just south of the city to a fabulous surfers' beach - and lunatics out in the spray riding the waves. And, for a short while, it was very pleasant!
After a return to the cottage and a quick change, we headed off to Dunedin's Forsyth Barr stadium which has a fully enclosed pitch within the edifice, a bit like a smaller version of Wales' Millennium Stadium. Somewhat fortuitously we got in to the ground early as not long after our arrival the wind began to howl again and lash down first with rain and then snow. And they had BEER !!
There was a game between a team in red and a team in blue. The team in red, despite having got a reasonable score in front, weren't very good.
The Highlanders, however, played out of their skins and well-deserved their 23-22 win. The crowd went completely mad at the final hooter, the party kicked off and lasted well into the night. In fact on our way home the next day the local radio presenter was bemoaning the fact that his co-host was still AWOL and presumably enjoying the celebrations.
Other than our sojourn to the Deep South, all the family here are doing great. Baby Otis is a trooper and has put on 1lb 8oz in his first three weeks. And like his folks, he's a pretty laid-back dude.
Uncle Chris and Auntie Emily flew over from Sydney to visit their new nephew. For us it was great to meet Oli's brother and sister-in-law and a good time was had by all.
We also managed to have supper out together (and Otis behaved impeccably) so a big thanks to Kika in Wanaka for a brilliant meal. And we had the opportunity to sample Oli's out-of-this-world coconut, vanilla and cacao nibs porter. It's frothy man...
And as I seem to be ending with pics of fabulous evening light shows, how about these? The first is on leaving Whare Kea Lodge, the second (thanks to Chris) from the park above our house.
