DUNEDIN

From Moeraki we drove south to Dunedin, 'the Edinburgh of the South'. Maoris settled here as early as 1100, and by 1820 numerous European whalers had come, many intermarrying with the native Maori. The harbour was bought in 1840 from the Maoris by the New Zealand Company and selected for planned Scottish settlement, which began in 1848. The original name of the settlement was 'New Edinburgh' but the name was changed to Dunedin, the old Gaelic name for Edinburgh.
The nephew of Robbie Burns was among the first wave of settlers, but, as the Settlers Museum shows,  they came under false pretenses believing the city to be built! Gold was discovered in 1860 but the boom was over by the 1870s.
The100,000 population of Dunedin is swelled by 25,000 students at the University of Otago, New Zealand's first university and founded in 1871, giving the city a vibrant arts scene and nightlife.

The City's Architecture:
Officially listed as 'one of the 2000 places you should visit before you die', the magnificent Railway Station was built on reclaimed swampland in 1906.

Inside, the walls of the foyer glisten with yellow, green and cream majolica tiles made specially for New Zealand Rail by Royal Doulton.

The mosaic floor is made up of more than 700,000 tiny squares of porcelain and celebrates the steam engine.

Outside is just as impressive with parre-terres of box hedges.

Across the road from the station, the Law Courts are housed in another fine building.

The Octagon is the tree-filled space in the centre of the city, bordered by historic buildings, restaurants, offices, banks, bars and clubs. At No. 17 is the Regent Theatre, a one-time hotel, now theatre built in 1874, where we stopped for coffee. We'd expected poor weather so far south but, as you can see, the sun was shining.

The view down Stuart Street from the Regent Theatre.

Eating in Dunedin:
Austin (see previous Oamaru blog) had recommended Plato as the best retaurant in town, not least for its decor.It's a former seafarers's crew-house filled to the gunnels with fantastically kitsch 1960s knick-knacks. Every junk shop in Dunedin must have been scoured to fill it! We didn't take any photos as we intended to go back the next night with a camera but a flavour of the place can be got from http://www.platocafe.co.nz/. The food was terrific too with a huge range of fresh-caught fish on offer.
We never made it back to Plato as we arranged instead to have dinner on our 2nd night in Dunedin with Miriam and Clive (see previous Oamaru and Moeraki blogs) at the Espalade: another great food place, but no 1960s kitsch this time!

The Taieri Gorge Railway:
We'd have gone to see the Railway station anyway, but we had to go there to catch the train for the Gorge which stretches 77kms. north-west of Dunedin through rugged mountains only accessible by train. The line was constructed between 1879 and 1921, and continued with commercial traffic till 1990 when it was sold to the Taieri Gorge Railway Company for tourist use. (The 'Rough Guide' lists it as the 7th of the 30 places not-to-be-missed on a visit to New Zealand.)

We travelled in nostalgically- refurbished 1920s wooden cars.
HISTORIANS ALERT! The train looked uncannily like the type of train used by Roosevelt in his 1932 presidential election campaign!




Here is a collection of the views from the train as it travelled through the Gorge.

You can see one of the bridges for the railway line...

This was the only evidence of civilisation along the gorge. It used to be the station house at Parera, 54m above sea level, and  the driver told us that it is now a holiday home!!

Our first stop to take some photos and stretch our legs. There were refreshment rooms here until 1949, when they burnt down.

The train traversingWingatui Viaduct. 197m long and 47m above Mullocky Stream, the viaduct is one of the largest wrought iron structures in the southern hemisphere.

Towards the end of the first leg of the journey the schist strata rocks took on the look of a moon-scape.  

Pukerangi (meaning 'Hill of Heaven'), the end of the line, before the train heads back to Dunedin.

Senior Moment:

We went for a stroll after the train ride, leaving the car at the station car park. Rather sheepishly, Steve had to admit that he had 'mislaid' his sun glasses AGAIN: the third pair so far since January 7th.

Guess what we saw on our return to the car!! Can you spot them...