Dunedin, New Zealand
Nov. 28th - Thanksgiving road trip to Dunedin
 AD made phone calls to Casey and Pat early
this morning. It's Thanksgiving at home. We're celebrating it
today also. The road trip to Dunedin follows rivers, and
crosses a few mountain passes. It is some of NZ's prettiest
landscape. The farmers had sprinklers running to protect fruit
trees from the frost. Other farms had netting over entire
orchards. More and more land was being planted with grape
vines. They make quite an interesting pattern up on hillsides.
This route has more small towns than many.
The gold rush brought a flood of people to these valleys in
the 19th century. Lawrence was particularly cute. Tourism is
the gold rush of today for these towns. It took 4+ hours to
get from Queenstown to Dunedin. Our next suite was ready when
we checked in. We like to empty the car before parking in a
city to explore.
 Dunedin has 120,000 people. It's built on a
huge harbor. The land rises steeply up from the water. Lots of
hills! Dunedin is a University town. There is a vibrant retail
district in the city center. The Octagon is the main square
and has the Art Museum, an Anglican Cathedral, theatres and
shops. AD celebrated being in a big city with Burger King.
It's amazing how much cheaper prices can be in a big city.
Milk in the grocery was 30% less. We bought our Thanksgiving
dinner (stuffed roast chicken & mashed potatoes) before
heading back to the Top 10 resort. This one has an indoor
pool. AD & DW tried it out.
This unit had a real stove which made
cooking easier. The mashed potatoes would have been difficult
in a microwave. After dinner, we drove to Baldwin St. It is
the steepest street in the world according to The Guiness Book
of Records. We parked and walked up the street. Dunedin has a
yearly race up the street. Winning record is 2 minutes. It
took us 5 minutes to walk up. There's a bench and drinking
fountain at the top. We watched a milkman drive up the street
and deliver on this street.
 The South Island is famous for Speight's
beer. We have been enjoying it. The brewery is right near the
city center. On the side of the building is a water tap where
anyone can come with jugs to fill with water. You know what
every brewer says "it's the water". We watched a young woman
come with three jugs to gather her drinking water from the
brewery spigot. We wished we'd brought one. The brewery has
tours available for $10 US and includes small samples at the
end. We'll buy another 6 pack instead.
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 One of the things in Dunedin that my parents thought would be
fun to see is the world's steepest street. Baldwin Street has
an incline of greater than 38 degrees and is listed in the
Guinness Book of World Records. Every year they have a race
where people run up the hill and back down. It is called the
Baldwin Gutbuster and the record is around 2 minutes. We tried
to do it and it took us 5 minutes just to get to the top. Dad
and I had to wait for Mom at the top so we were a lot faster.
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Hiking in Dunedin...» |
