10. Dun-a-deen & The Otago Peninsula

Try as I may, whenever I see the word Dunedin (the second largest city in the South Island), I pronounce it 'Dun-a-deen' in my head. I have no idea why, but it makes me sound like an idiot if I say it out loud. Anyway this post is about my mini city break to Dunedin during my latest couple of days off from work.

Before I get to that I will just introduce you all to some of the latest additions to the farm:

As you can see they are just delightful!

But then again so were these lamb burgers I made the other day. I am looking forward to sampling some of the home-reared lamb. The bottle pictured below is my NZ beer of choice, Speight's, which is brewed in Dunedin.

Anyway, back to my trip south down the coast to the capital of Otago. I drove the 70 odd mile distance without stopping, making mental notes of everything I passed that I wanted to see on the return journey. I forgot about most of them and U-turns became a major feature of the drive home. 

I got into Dunedin after some long slow hills, upon which the Nissan performed admirably, making good use of the helpful passing lanes. Once into the city I got immediately lost. I don't enjoy city driving when I am in the UK in a city which I am familiar with, never mind in a strange a city, with many tiny road signs. At least they do drive on the left in NZ. 

The large amount of traffic lights gave me good opportunity to find where I was on a map, but not enough time to find out where I was meant to be going. After getting thoroughly exasperated with the countless missed turnings and wrong lane choices, I eventually found a hostel in which I could stay the night. 

I payed just $25 for a bed, in a 'dorm room' which was shared with one other bloke, whom the landlady assured me was very nice. I wasn't so sure at first, I though I had been lodged with a weirdo, look how much honey he had under his bed:

He turned out to be OK, he was from Malaysia and was visiting his girlfriend who was at Otago University, before flying off to complete his law degree at a British Uni. I asked him where, and by amazing coincidence he was off to Aberystwyth University where I learned a lot, mostly the capability of my liver but also a small amount about agriculture. Pretty amazing considering I chose the hostel and was assigned the room at random. I am unsure how to spell his name, but it sounded like 'as if''. As if, that was his name. 

Having landed and parked the car, I wandered around the city centre and the famous Octagon (the central plaza). It is a city built on industry, founded by Scots. Much of that heritage is apparent when looked at, right up to the statue of Robert Burns in the Octagon. I generally try and stay away from the 'touristy' places so I didn't really go to any of the major attractions of the city. Although I did wander around enough shops to last a few months at least.

 Eventually I was drawn to the warmth of a pub. My pub of choice was 'The Robbie Burns', and it was there I stayed for a few hours and sampled a responsible amount of the local brew (Speight's of course). Much banter and enjoyable pub conversation ensued and I feel that Anglo-Kiwi relations are improved after my time there. One of the locals is an ex-pat from London who could well be solely responsible for the British warm beer stereotype. I was ashamed and embarrassed to find out that he had his beer microwaved, "Fifteen seconds will do just fine thank you." Before I left the 'Burns' I was made an honourary local, for which I am enormously proud. 

The one picture of the city I took during my cold walk home was of the moon shining brightly above the town hall. I don't remember taking it to be perfectly honest. 

I should add that in no way do I condone excessive consumption of alcohol, even in the interests of international diplomacy. 

I awoke bright and early to a beautiful morning with not a cloud in the sky. My plan for the day was to explore the Otago Peninsular which juts out from Dunedin into the ocean forming Otago Harbour as well as some awesome landscape. 

I drove out of the city across either a bridge or a causeway, I was paying too much attention to the road signs to notice. The road I drove along wound its way along the waters edge, and looking back produced a great panorama of the city.

The winter sun was shining very brightly in my eyes, glaring off the water, and the proximity of the road to the sea was at times slightly worrying. It was sunglasses, visor and 'raised hand trying to block out the sun' driving conditions.

I thought I should visit New Zealand's only castle, so I did just that. Larnach Castle is not much of a castle by European standards, but it does have battlements and a very nice garden.

In the garden I found an example of an actual Silver Fern, which is actually green, but is silver when adorning the jersey of an All Black. 

One thing has to be said about Larnach Castle, the views from the tower were incredible.

The first photograph is looking out across the water separating the peninsular and the mainland. The second image is the view looking out towards the far end of the the peninsular. The pointy hill is called Harbour Cone. 

After visiting the castle, I drove down towards Sandfly Bay at took a few snaps of the beach and some woolly locals. Having just looked at a map, this is the furthest south I have ever been which I suppose is quite something.

I took the back way from here toward the end of the peninsular along roads that I am pretty sure were under water a few days ago. Some still were. There were some great scenes of the inlets and some of the waterfowl that inhabit the area. 

Eventually I got to the end of the Otago Peninsular, where there was the Royal Albatross Centre (closed) and a quite frankly disappointing cafe from where they run wildlife tours. As regular readers will know, I prefer to take myself on my own wildlife tours. 

There was this view though, I thought it could almost be a sunny day on the Welsh Coast, if such days existed!

I also thought I should take a portrait of the car that was going so well, in front of a strange but interesting rock-tree combo.

The Avenir continued to perform well, especially going up the steepest street in the world, which can be found, eventually, in the suburbs of Dunedin. I tried to take a video of me driving up Baldwin Street in mostly 3rd gear, but the camera fell of the passenger seat headrest. The hill inclines at at 19°, for every horizontal 2.86m traveled, the road rises by a metre.

Back on the open road, driving North up the coast, I stopped off at a place called Shag Point to have a look at some of the wildlife that occasionally swims, flies or waddles onto the rocks there. 

After a bit of searching and climbing around on rocks in inappropriate footwear, I found a seal enjoying a late afternoon siesta. I managed to get really quite close to him as he dozed on the sun-soaked rocks. 

I thought this was a great photo opportunity and tried to get a photo of us both together, I didn't quite put my arm round his shoulder but I was right next to him.

It turns out I was too close, he woke up and saw me and got very angry.
What I would like to say is that I didn't run away. But I did.

I also stopped off at the Moeraki Boulders which are famous for being very round. They were as spherical as I expected but there were rather less than I thought there might be. Worth a stop though.

Right that is all for now. In hindsight I probably should have split this post into two separate ones. It has taken me about three days to write.

Thanks for reading, and share this blog among your friends.