Dunedin: The Edinburgh of the South

After completing the Kepler track last Tuesday, Emma and Matt ventured back to Queenstown and then up the South Island's west coast, while I did a bit more tramping. I have been to the west coast twice so I felt like doing something different. When I finished my two day tramp I hitch hiked back to Queenstown, where I stayed for a couple of days in an attempt to sell my bike. Queenstown was getting pretty boring by the time I left - it feels like a soulless tourist honeypot after a few days so I was quite keen to get on to Dunedin on the east coast. I finally sold my bike on Saturday, so Sunday saw me with my thumb out on the road out of Queenstown in the hope of a lift to Dunedin.

3 lifts did it. One to Frankton, about 7km out of Queenstown, the next to Cromwell, a further 55km, and the third all the way to Dunedin, nearly 300km away from Queenstown. Dunedin is sometimes referred to as 'The Edinburgh of the South'. It's a nice city - the most pleasant I've been to so far in New Zealand. It's the South Island's second biggest city (which isn't saying much), but it's smallish size does give it a personal and homely feel. In the sense that it has old buildings, a few big churches, an old university, a river and a Scottish name, it's exactly like Edinburgh (what could be more similar?).





There is something that distinguishes Dunedin from Edinburgh, however. Dunedin is in possession of the world's steepest street (according to the Guinness Book of Records). This is one steep mother of a street. You can forget San Francisco - this street has a maximum gradient of 1 in 2.86. That's like nearly this steep:







Now I'm back in Christchurch, and tomorrow I'm getting a flight to Wellington, where I'm reuniting with E & M. I'm also looking forward to meeting up with my uni mate Jen and my school mate Amy in the next few days. See - all the clever people are over here in New Zealand!