Bus to Dunedin, World's Steepest Street, Hogwartz!
Dunedin University City, Natural History Museum, Churches of Dunedin
Botanical Gardens, Aviary, Railway Station, Settlers' Museum, Speight's Brewery!
Distance: Bus Queenstown to Dunedin, 301km, Walking round Dunedin, ~15km
Total Distance: 4783km
Dunedin's great! Why aren't more people going there!?!
Compared to the Kiwi Experience buses the "Bottom Bus" was a small older bus that reminded me of something from Forrest Gump. We travelled through a few small towns that had once thrived with the industry of Gold Mining now reduced to farming back waters or minor tourist destinations. One of these was Palmerston South- the southern counterpart to the town I leaved near on the north island, Palmerston North. They're not really connected in any way, but accidentally got the same name so became designated by their island. PS is no where near as big as PN. There's a monument on a hill over looking it to a local MP who was part of the negotiations as to where the capital city should be.
They also have a monument to the FIRST FROZEN MEAT EXPORT!
This was actually really important moment for NZ- frozen meat allowed more than just the tanned skins and fleeces could be exported. NZ had lots of animals it could profit from, but it was difficult to send them overseas. Suddenly carcasses could be sent to the rest of the world and the economy jumped and, unlike the early days with forestry, whaling, and gold, the farming economy was more stable and continued to provide revenue.
We came over the hill to Dunedin and, having expected a regular town, I was met with a city, speckled with medieval style churches, student flats, and university buildings.
We dropped in on the way in to Baldwin Street, the world's steepest street. At 19' it is very steep people were very bravely driving up the street or reversing out of their driveways. The houses either side have 1 storey at one side and 2 on the other. The council has used cement on most of the road to give traction when people drive up it. Must be a lot of people who come here- there's a refreshments stall half way up and a souvenir shop at the bottom. It's a street on a steep hill. I can live without the tshirt, thanks.
Time to go to Hogwartz!
Hogwartz was to be my hostel for the next 3 nights. It wasn't actually that Harry Potter themed- there was a little, but not a great deal. If that was all I'd gone for I would have been very disappointed. Yet I was also after somewhere nice to stay, with nice people, and nice surroundings- I really don't ask for much these days- and I really was very pleased with what I found.
The hostel was once a priory for the Catholic monks who went to the St Joseph's Church next door, which also has the nunnery on the opposite side. The design is the same as many of the buildings in Edinburgh, giving it, for me, a touch of home. There were many lovely people staying there and one of them, in my dorm, was a young man from the Australian army holidaying in NZ.
The Ozzie and I wanted to go see nearly all of the same things in Dunedin so for the next two days we went to things together, occasionally accompanied by an older Chinese guy.
DUNEDIN
The city was founded by Presbyterian communities from Scotland escaping religious persecution. They wanted to build a home from home and this Dunedin is based on Edinburgh. Dunedin is actually the Gaelic name for Edinburgh. It even has a Prince's Street and George Street, though they are not parallel, running along the same line, meeting in the Octagon, the central "square" of the city.
We end down to the Train Station, the most photographed building in New Zealand, one of the few still standing made of stone. Here there was a farmers' market so we bought fruit, bread, and salami at a surprisingly cheap rate- less than the supermarket!
From here we went on to the Natural History Museum. Being based on the University city of Edinburgh the founders of Dunedin invested heavily in the university here and the museum society, something I wasn't quite thinking of as we climbed the stairs.
"I've been to so many museums in New Zealand now I'm starting to feel kind of jaded. They all have the same sort of thing, I worry I'll get bored", I had to open my big mouth, of course.
At this the museum employee just behind us piped up,
"Well we do have the Planetarium now, and there's the butterfly forest. If you go to the top of the building we have the animal attic, New Zealand's biggest collection of stuffed animals." JACKPOT!
(I appreciate the killing and stuffing of many animals is not the done thing now, but they're over 100 years old and remain interesting.)
The museum did not disappoint. We not through the best displays of ancient Natural History of the country I've ever seen- even even better than Te Papa in Wellington, and I love Te Papa. Further up we found the animal rooms. The Empire apparently sent half of Noah's Ark here, although there was the occasional pair. Ozzie had done biology at university, and was thinking about doing marine biology here when he finished in the army, so we both had a significant interest in what we found.
There were also fossils of dinosaurs and Moa bones, a section about cultures of the world, including an Egyptian Mummy and a caste array of swords. Finally we made it to the special exhibit about Einstein before we left.
The university was just across the road, so we ducked in there. The students aren't in town right now, hence the quietness of the place, making our walk through both quick and boring. Excellent place, looked like somewhere I'd have enjoyed studying, yet without the people it was dead.
Ozzie went for a run whilst I had a quick poke around the local churches.
These intrigue me as they are in the style of British churches- which are about twice the age of this nation. The time and skill to build these places is not easy to come by. The Sctos were determined though and they nearly got what they wanted. Nearly.
The church by the Octagon has a very plain back to it, incorporating the altar. This is entirely at odds to its front and midsection, which is decorated with all the usual details of a British church. Turns out they ran out of money after the First World War, and building ceased. It wasn't completed until 1971! I met a man who's father-in-law had been the architect. They had never had the money to match the architecture of the rest of the church, so he'd decided upon a simple, plain design, yet one that matched with the overall outline of the building. For all that it's unusual, the design does work, preventing the building from being an ugly mess it might otherwise have been.
The other church I went to was St Josef's. The Catholic Church had managed to build a similarly impressive structure, and had even completed it. However it was not as large as the original plans. The ground plans, like many churches in Britain, show the shape of a cross. Only the foot of the cross was built, the arms being missed out. It's still large and lovely though.
That evening the Chinese guy brought out his special green tea brought from China. We discussed methods and theories around tea making, as well as different forms of tea. His green tea was lovely, and we drank away the evening discussing New Zealand and our travels here.
On my second day we went, Pommy, Ozzie, and Chinese, to the Botanic Gardens. We took a frizz bee with us and had an hour in the sun and wind trying not to entirely destroy the garden. It got lost in a tree once, into the rose garden a couple of times, and then as I fished it out of a bush a bee stung my foot. Man down, man down! We ended the game there and went into the tropical glass house.
The tropical house was amazing- the Chinese guy and I took lots of pictures of the beautiful flowers and he told us stories of what could be used for different types of tea.
We trundled around the rest of the gardens, seeing the duck, the tree, and up to the Aviary. I've seen a few Botanical Gardens with Aviaries here, but none as large as Dunedin's. As well as an array of rare species they had many different parrots that were all entertaining.
Ozzie went off of the museum again, Chinese went to go have a sit down and make tea, and I went off to go see the Settlers' Museum. It was diverse and had a lot more about the actual people who were the first European people here than many other museums I've seen. There was even a mock wattle-and-daube cottage showing how the first settler's lived, and a reconstruction of the sort of cabin they would have had on the voyage here.
I stopped in at the Railway station afterwards. Only scenic tourist trains go through now, no public trains. Within there is now a large cafe, a museum, and an excellent and cheap art gallery- paintings by the local art society for 1/10th of the price you'd pay elsewhere. I nearly bought a $50 rabbit-the artist had done great work on the eyes, I've done many eyes, they're hard- the results are either terrible or amazing, and these were amazing.
There was one space left on the 7pm Speight's Brewery Tour, so Ozzie and I took them up. We were guided around NZ's oldest working brewery, got an education (Mr Speight was from Wakefield, near my home. He might have even been to my high school.), before making it down to the bar. Free beers! Many many free beers! And as the last tour we got in some extra, after hours, time! The glasses were tiny, but we kept at it and came away with a slight stumble.
I didn't make it to the Castle, which disappoints me, but it's not a real castle, I think I'll be able to leave it for next time. Sounds good though.
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