Dunedin

N.B. the last two posts are in the wrong order....Southlands should come after Queenstown, but the website won't let me change the order!
Anyway, from The Catlins we hit Dunedin....if Invergaril was supposed to have a scottish feel, it was nothing compared to Dunedin! The central square (in fact an Octagon) is presided over by a towering Robby Burns!!! We loved Dunedin, it is the oldest City and it's character and architecture reflects this history....no more timber bungalows on massive plots of land, but rows of stone\brick buildings, even some old terrace houses (unheard of elsewhere in NZ), all built on steep hills with small walled gardens - we really felt at home here! So much so that we ended up spending 4 nights in the city (our longest time in one place so far in NZ), of course we were still keeping costs down parking 'Mo' up on quite residential streets where we'd camp for the night for free! The city had lots to keep us busy: Cadbury World (Mmmm! Lots of free chocolate!), Speights Brewery Tour (Mmmm! Lots of free Beer!), Antartica Exhibition (time for Chris to reminisce), Botantical Gardens (hanging out with the old grannies), and The Casino....yes thats correct, the skin flints splashed out on a night at the Casino - but thanks to some free drinks coupons and some lucky spins on the roulette we actually got the whole night, including several more drinks, for free!! with extra money in the pocket!! Wouldn't worry though, don't think its gonna be a regular thing....wouldn't want to lose that winning feeling!! We even had a proper saturday night out in town, having had a good start to the drinking at the Speights Brewery, moving onto a couple more bars, but the best bit about the evening was bumping into a kiwi friend we'd met in Honduras 6 months ago....we'd known she was living in NZ but had lost her e-mail...strangest thing she wasn't even living in Dunedin, just there for one night, such a small world!!! She invited us to come stay with her up near Queenstown, so think we'll probably change our plans a bit to make the most of the offer of a proper home!

Chris is a proper 'Southern Man' now!

Camping in Dunedin!