Dunedin

The next town we visited was Dunedin, which is the south islands second largest city. Despite this it was quite small with a population of 122,000. Dunedin is the gaelic name for Edinburgh and was founded in 1848 by settlers of the Free Church of Scotland. The city's Scottish routes are still visible with the country's first and only legal Whiskie distillery and a statue of Rabbie Burns. The city's university, the university of Otago was the country's first university.

Dunedin's claim to fame is holding the World record for the steepest residential street in the world. This is Baldwin street, and it's located just outside the city center. The street is a straight street of a little under 350 metres length and rises from 30 metres (98 ft) above sea level, to 100 metres (330 ft) above sea level at the top, an average slope of slightly more than 1:5. Its lower reaches are of only moderate steepness, and the surface is asphalt, but the upper reaches of this cul-de-sac are far steeper, and surfaced in concrete, for ease of maintenance (tar seal would flow down the slope on a warm day) and for safety in Dunedin's frosty winters. At its maximum, the slope of Baldwin Street is approximately 1:2.86 (19° or 35%) – that is, for every 2.86 metres travelled horizontally, the elevation rises by 1 metre.

We decided to take a walk from our hostel to Baldwin Street not realising it was 4km away and was a roasting hot day. Luckily this acted as a nice warm up before the climb up the world steepest residential street. Not too boast but it didn't even seem that hard, and it certainly didn't require a taxi to the top like a lot of peope were doing, most not even getting out, but trying to take a photo out the taxi window! It must have been lazy Aussies although not all were like this as one jackass decided to make us look bad by running up the street barefooted next to us.
























On the way back from Baldwin Street was the Botanic Gardens we decided to cut through and have a walk about they were really nice but just as we were beginning to enjoy them we had finished as they were so small.



There were a few other reminders of Scotish history like a scottish pub called Robert Burns house as well as the Robert Burns Statue and a few Scottish shops.




While walking around we came across an artistic mechanic who used old car parts to create sculptures of some of New Zealands wildlife.


We decided to check out one of the beaches in the area. We chose Tunnel Beach, which is just 2km south of Dunedin. It gets its name from a passage that was hand carved in the 1870s through a rock promontory to allow access to a secluded and sheltered beach at the base of the cliffs. The Southern Ocean and the strong winds have sculpted the sandstone coastline south of Dunedin over hundreds of years, creating a line of high cliffs, arches and headlands that provide countless vantage points for amazing views across the coastline. We loved it here and enjoyed running in the dark cave to pose for some photos.













































On our last day we took a drive out to the Otago Peninsula, the main attraction here is the Royal Albatross colony. This is the only mainland location where these birds nest and they are highly endangered. We took a look around the center but we didn't stick around until nightime to see them. Once again the scenery around here was fantastic, heres a few pics.