Dunedin

Hi everybody,

Today we are at our last port of call in New Zealand, the city of Dunedin. This city was largely settled due to a gold rush in the region in 1861. It quickly became the largest city in New Zealand, but once the miners and industry left, its population dwindled, and other cities grew. Today, it has a population of approximately 125,000.  The city has a very strong Scottish influence. In fact, it's name is Gaelic for Edinburgh. 

We had no excursions planned for today, but last night at dinner we sat with two couples who had scheduled a train ride through the scenic Taeiri Gorge today. It sounded like an interesting activity to us, so when we woke this morning, we tried to join in on that trip. No luck; it was sold out. But a fellow guest told us that we may still be able to plan the trip through another tour operator once we got off the ship in Dunedin, and that is precisely what we did.  In fact, it worked out even better, because we got the train ride and a two-hour tour of the city by bus included for the same price. 

The train ride was lovely. We were lucky with the timing too, as the hillsides were ablaze with the beautiful yellow Scotch Bloom.

Here's what our train looked like as we trekked along...

Here is the inside of one of the cars. They look like they were designed in the 1930s or 1940s...

And here's David waving a fond farewell to the train tour...

The train station in Dunedin is quite beautiful too. It is called "The Gingerbread House" by locals, and you can see why. We took a few pictures of its interior and exterior...

Next, we went on our city tour by bus. When we first saw the city, it didn't look like anything special. But after driving around a bit, we began to see how lovely it was. From the beautiful sand beaches...

To the elaborate churches and cathedrals...

And the steepest street in the world (per the Guiness Book of Records, Lombard Street in San Francisco ranks second)...

And finally, these unusual teeth. The Kiwis have a good sense of humor, as they used these teeth to indicate the "mouth of the bay." Get it?!?!  

Also, notice that they are "wisdom" teeth.  They used these because Dunedin is the center of higher education in New Zealand.  There are many universities located in the city. 

One last thing we haven't mentioned yet. Everywhere we go, we see these beautiful and exotic trees. Although we don't know their proper name, the New Zealanders affectionately call them "Christmas threes," because of their deep green leaves and vibrant red flowers. Also, they bloom at Christmas time. The white buds open into large, fuzzy red flowers. 

Well, that's all for today. Best wishes to everyone, and talk to you all soon!

All best,

Karen and David