Arriving in the city on Wednesday 8th April was in way of a contrast to Te Annau and Queenstown in that the city is not only larger but despite its' close location to the Pacific with attractive landscapes all around the city, and is more of an industrial city with some poorer neighbourhoods. The YHA is situated in one such neighbourhood in an old hospital, and is an attractive building with many nooks and crannies. The city has close connections with Scotland with many of the early settlers from Scotland and is built on a series of hills, boasting one of the steepest streets in NZ.
I rang the bells at the First Church of Otago, a presbyterian church, on Easter Sunday, a light ring of 8 bells. The treble is the bell situated furthest south of any bells, a good bell to ring but requiring a light touch. The ringers made another visiting English ringer and myself very welcome.
I stayed in Dunedin longer than originally planned due to the problem of having to wait for my new credit card to arrive from England, combined with the Easter weekend it took 7 days. The compensation was that I found a great olympic standard swimming pool with a diving pool which enabled me to continue training for the dive course in July/August in Australia. Also found a local train which followed the coast for a return 3 hour journey, sadly I assumed it was a steam train but as you can see from the picture the engine was a deisel but the carriages were from the late 19 and early 20th centuries, something of a compensation!
The second journey from Dunedin was a wildlife tour to the only mainland albatross colony on the peninsula, sadly the conditions were too calm for the adult albatross' to land and feed their chicks but we were able to see the chicks from the hide at the centre, but we visited a private beach near the peninsula and were able to see penguins and sea lions. We were able to walk within about 15 feet of both animals.
Photo's are shown , yet again in reverse order!
Photo 1. The Botanic Gardens, Dunedin. As with all similar gardens in NZ this is a fine example of the genre.
Photo 2. Octagonal telephone box in Dunedin main square, The Octagon, note the cathedral in the background (no bells).
Photo 3. Hooper Sea Lions on the beach at the peninsula, not chased this time.
Photo 4. A tame yellow eyed penguin, as with all the 10 or so penguins seen this one was walking away from the beach and would spend the night up on the hillside overlooking the beach, hidden amongst the low shrubs, away from his fellow penguins. These are not a sociable penguin, unlike the king penguins etc.
Photo 5. An albatross chick, sadly I was unable to get a clearer picture from the hide.
Photo 6 and 7. The view of the coastline from the train.
Photo 8. The deisel engine pulling the 'classic carriages', somewhat disappointing as expected a steam train!
Photo 9. The 'classic' carriage(s).
Photo 10. The sea lion on St Kilda beach, this one chased me, I ran.
Photo 11. St Kilda Beach, a great walk of about 6 km, a friend dropped me at the city cemetery, the furthest point from Dunedin.
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