Dunedin

Dunedin, old Gaelic for Edinburgh, is the second-largest city on the South Island of New Zealand, located in the Otago region.

Understand

Dunedin is known as the Edinburgh of the South and is proud of its Scots heritage. It was built in a time before the car was king, when ships and railways moved people around. It is built in a natural harbour on a relatively small area of flat land. It is surrounded by steep hillsides. Some of its streets are steep and turn icy in winter.

Dunedin is a University Town. The University of Otago is the earliest established university in New Zealand. It's also correct to say that Dunedin is a student town (university student's town). A consequence of this is that the city is significantly quieter during the university summer holiday period (approx November to February).

Dunedinites (the Dunedin people) are generally friendly, noticeably more friendly than in the bigger cities of NZ (& the bigger cities anywhere else in the world).

• http://www.dunedinnz.com
• http://www.visit-dunedin.co.nz
• http://www.cityofdunedin.com

Get in

By plane

• Dunedin International Airport, DUD, =>. A domestic and international airport.
• * Air New Zealand, 0800 737 000, =>. Flies from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
• * Freedom Air, 0800 600 500 in NZ or 1800 122 000 in Australia, =>. Flies from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Flying time ranges from 3 hours 20 minutes from Melbourne to 4 hours from Brisbane.

Dunedin airport is 30 kilometers out of town on the nearest piece of flat land that was big enough. If you are flying into Dunedin, be sure that you have a transfer or transport arranged. Taxis and shuttle buses operate from just outside the terminal and are usually there when flights arrive. The fare for a shared shuttle is around $NZD 15 and for NZD$45-50 for a taxi to Dunedin.

By train

The railway station is close to the centre of town. Unfortunately there is no longer a regular passenger train service.

By car

State Highway 1 passes through Dunedin. Allow 5 to 6 hours travel from Christchurch and 3 to 4 hours travel from Invercargill. Be sure to get a good detailed map as soon as you can. Most hostels have very detailed maps for the downtown area with reasonable details for the outlying areas. The roads can be very confusing with lots of one way streets and circles.

By bus

There are daily services from Christchurch and Invercargill. The trip from (or to) Christchurch takes about 6.5 hours. For hardier souls, there are a number of overnight bus services available.

Get around

Dunedin operates a city bus service from 7am to 10pm during the week. Services are reduced on a Saturday, on Sundays and after 6pm. (Bus Timetable Information)

These services also run out along the Peninsula, but if you're terrified by oncoming traffic take a different road because in places the buses are wider than the lanes they travel in. The traffic is generally used to this and travels very cautiously.

There is a recycling centre down by the north-east end of the docks (in Wickliffe Street) which generally has one or two reasonable-condition bicycles lying about for NZ$10 apiece. Carefully add air (there's a service station due west back over the bridge) and oil and you're set to go. You will also need a skid-lid/stack-hat/helmet, which are generally unavailable second-hand for liability reasons, but can be had new for NZD$20 from the KMart in Meridian, between George Street and Filleul Street. There is another recycling shop called "Recover" at Brighton Road, Green Island (which is about 10km from TheOctagon) but I haven't tried it.

Dunedin's centre is reasonably flat, and there is also an excellent flat ride out along the west cost of the OtagoPeninsula to Harington Point but practically everything else is steep and hard.

If you like a bit of a hill-climb I recommend riding out along North Street (which, contrary to usual urban planning practice, actually exits the north of the city) to the Organ Pipes, a collection of rapidly-cooled rocks which have self-formed into organ-pipe-like structures. The walk along a bush track up to the Pipes themselves is very scenic and well attended by small, harmless wildlife. The ride up along the ridge of the Peninsula to Lanarch Castle is also good high-energy exercise.

If you like pushing a bike up a hill because it's too steep, dive off North Street onto Norwood Road, or cross to the east side of the Peninusla, or head straight up the hill behind TheOctagon past the Beverly-Begg Observatory to suburbs with a view like Roslyn.

The Taeri Gorge railway is a very scenic and much more passive trip, ending at a small village called Middlemarch. Take your camera and lots of memory.

See

• Cadbury World, 280 Cumberland St, 0800 223287, 03 467 7967, fax 03 4677968, cadburyworld@cadbury.co.nz, =>. Daily tours running every half hour from 9am-4pm, with hours extended to 7pm during the summer. Closed Christmas Day and the morning of Anzac Day. Take a guided tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, a factory that accounts for more that 75% of New Zealand's chocolate production.

• Speights Brewery, 200 Rattray St, 03 477 7697 (Tours) or 03 477 9480 (Office), fax 03 477 9489, tours@speights.co.nz, =>. Shop hours: M-Th 9:30am-7pm, F-Su 9:30am-5pm. Tours daily at 10am, 12 noon, 2pm. Close Christmas day, Good Friday, Easter Saturday/Sunday, and shortened hours on ANZAC day. Children under fifteen require adult supervision. The brewery has been a Dunedin landmark since its founding in 1876. The guided tour takes you through the Speight's brewery, sharing the hertiage and culture of beer, from the Babylonians to today. The tour's finale is a 25 minute beer tasting. You must be 18 years old to join in on the tasting.
• Fortune Theatre, 231 Stuart St, corner of Stuart St and Moray Pl, Box office 03 477 8323, Administration 03 477 1292, fax 03 477 6791, =>. Housed in a converted stone church, the Fortune Theatre provides professional live performances to the citizens of Otago.
• Hoyts 6 Octagon Cinemas, 33 The Octagon, 03 477 7019. Catch a feature film in the Octagon.
• The Octagon. The city center - it is shaped like an Octagon instead of the standard square. This part of town is very active and lots of businesses strive to be near it.
• * Robert Burns statue. The over 100 year old statue of poet Robbie Burns sits in The Octagon and was recently restored. The statue was cast by a notable sculptor of Edinburgh, Scotland. This same sculptor made four other, nearly identical, statues, one of which rests in Central Park, New York.
• The Organ Pipes small columnar rock format set in a hillside with splendid views. Pleasant hike up a steep bush track from a carpark about 5km out of town along North Road.

• The architecture

• The Royal Albatross colony, at Taiaroa Head, => is the only mainland albatross nesting site in the world. It is an hour's drive along the western coast of Otago Peninsula on a road that skirts the water for most of its length without any guardrail. In places, the city buses which frequent the road are wider than the lanes (the local traffic is used to this, and drives very carefully), so if you don't trust your driving reflexes, take a coach instead. Albatrosses may be seen during the summer months, as well as other wildlife at all times of the year. Guided tours of the colony and the old fortifications on and under the headland are conducted daily.
• Otago Museum
• Carisbrook - The House of Pain! Where great rugby and cricket games are won and lost.
• The university (Otago University) - some beautiful old stone buildings, with one or two impressive newer buildings and the Water of Leith running through.
• Tunnel beach - The story goes that crazy old Cargill had a steep tunnel cut through the stone cliff, so his daughter could go to the beach. Some stories say she later drowned, but it's a lovely beach all the same, and the tunnel is very spooky. You need to walk over farmland to get there, so access is banned during lambing. See the visitor's centre in the Octagon for further information.
• Otago Peninsula => - much scenic coastline including rugged points and headlands, wildfowl-laden mud flats and beautiful Allans Beach (plus several smaller beaches) on the south/east coast, and picturesque hamlets on the north/west coast (including a pretty and peaceful cemetery on a little spit of land called Dunoon, many boat-houses and a miniscule beach). Seals, sea-lions and other interesting fauna turn up at all of the southern/eastern beaches.
• Otakou marae - a Maori church and meeting-house, which gave the Otago Peninsula its name. Find it on a side-road near Harington Point, at the outer (nother/east) end of the Peninsula.
• Lanarch Castle http://www.larnachcastle.co.nz/ - billed as "the only castle" in New Zealand, it's very pretty but technically only a manor house and there is another (ruined, but being restored) building in the same predicament called Cargill's Castle in the southern suburbs of Dunedin. Lanarch Castle has a rich and interesting history.

Do

• Baldwin Street. Located in Dunedin's North East Valley suburb. According to the Guinness Book of Records it is the steepest street in the world. Take the ten minute walk to the top or drive up to enjoy the view looking down! There is a drinking fountain at the top. Some people have tried, and a few have succeeded, cycling all the way up Baldwin Street - try it if you're a keen cyclist.
• * Baldwin Street Gutbuster. Take part in a run up and back on the world's steepest street during the city's summer festival.
• Swim or surf the beaches. Though it may be a bit cold, so the heated pool may be nicer.

Learn

• Attend the University of Otago => - the southernmost University in the world. The students are referred to as scarfies and provide most of the volume at Carisbrook - the city's main sports ground. It helps to have the image of a Southern man and drink copious amounts of Speights - the local brew.

Buy

• Tapui Childrens Books, 449 Princess St, 03 479 2940, fax 03 471 8036, tapui@es.co.nz, =>. M-Fr 9am-5:30pm, Sa 10am - 1pm. Founded in 1973, Tapui started focusing on children's books almost 20 years ago. The store is only 5 minutes walk from the Octagon and they also operate a travelling bookshop that visits area schools.

Eat

For the desperate, McDonalds is at 232 George Street, where an internet cafe is attached -- but I wouldn't go there. George Street is just littered with all kinds of restaurants, starting about two blocks north of TheOctagon (in the centre of Dunedin). There are also a few interesting places on Albany Street, which runs across the south of the UniversityOfOtago.

They're used to students and other tightwads, too. The wiki for the LCA2006 Linux conference hosts some photos of them, which will eventually be pushed into a local (Dunedin) wiki.

Budget

Being NZ, if you want Fush and Chups, you go to a Chinese restaurant for them. Dunno why, but it works. (-: The prices are pretty good, although the fish servings are typically only about 1/2 to 2/3 of the size of the Australian counterpart.

One interesting local specialty is kumara chips, made with a local sweet-potato variant and typically priced at about double the cost of potato chips. Very tasty!

The kiwis are also good at making icecream, and many places (including little delis and general stores at places like MacAndrew Bay) sell cones for fairly reasonable prices (e.g. NZD$1.90 for a double cone).

Mid-range

Splurge

Sleep

Budget

• Adventurer Backpacker, 37 Dowling Street, 03 477 7367, 0800 422 257. Located in a converted historic building.

• Arden Central Bed and Breakfast, 36 Arden Street, 03 473 8860, http://www.ardenstreethouse.co.nz/. Offers B&B, homestay and ensuite. 20 minute walk to the Octagon. NZ$45-NZ$130.

• Chalet Backpackers, 296 High Street, 03 479 2075, 0800 242 538. 10 minute walk to the Octagon. No bunks are to found in this backpackers - and only a maximum of 5 people in the largest room!

• Dunedin Central Backpackers, 243 Moray Place, 03 477 9985, http://dunedincentralbackpackers.com/. 1 minute from the Octagon in the heart of the city.

• Elm Lodge, 74 Elm Row, 03 474 1872, 0800 356 563, http://www.backpack.co.nz/dunedin.html#164. Friendly backpackers/hostel located 5 minutes walk from the city's center the Octagon. Limited parking is found on the street.

• Hogwartz Backpacker Hostel, 277 Rattray Street, 03 474 1487. 5 minute walk from the Octagon. Maximum 4 share room, no bunks.

• Leviathan Heritage Hotel and Downtown Dunedin Backpackers, 27 Queens Gardens, 03 477 3160, 0800 773 773 http://www.dunedinhotel.co.nz/. 2 minute walk to the Octagon. Practically next door to a 24x7 Countdown supermarket and the railway station.

• Next Stop Backpackers, 2 View Street, 03 477 0447 (fax 477-0430) http://www.nextstop.co.nz/, low $20s for a dorm, pretty, clean and quiet, very close to TheOctagon and central facilities. The street is nearly perpendicular, so not a good spot for wheelchairs.

• On Top Backpackers, Filleul Street near TheOctagon and Moray Street, 03 477 6121 (fax 477 6141) http://www.ontopbackpackers.co.nz/, low $20s for a dorm bed, small dorms, good clean facilities, good staff, good attitude, right next to TheOctagon and two blocks from a 24x7 Countdown supermarket. Built over a pool hall and bar; literally one minute from most facilities including cinema, library, information centre, banks, food etc. 24x7 swipe-card access.

Mid-range

• 10 Trinity Court Motel, 10 Carroll St, 0800 444 909, 03 477 2767, fax 03 477 2724, trinityc@es.co.nz, =>. This Budget Motel Chain member offers private parking and all of the rooms are non-smoking with private facilities. NZ$60-NZ$105.

• Hilltop on High Street, 433 High Street, 03 477 1053, =>. Come here for a little pampering. Offers backpackers, homestay, ensuite and B&B. NZ$70-NZ$90.

• Leviathan Heritage Hotel and Downtown Dunedin Backpackers, 27 Queens Gardens, 03 477 3160, 0800 773 773, =>. 2 minute walk to the Octagon.

Splurge

• 27 Pitt, 27 Pitt St, 03 477 5133, fax 03 477 5132, 27pitt@xtra.co.nz. A quiet bed and breakfast NZ$220-NZ$250.
• Elgin House, 31 Elgin Rd, 0800 272 940, 03 453 0004, fax 03 453 0004, inquiry@elginhouse.co.nz, =>. NZ$195-NZ$250. Luxury bed and breakfast built in the late 1800s that is located 3km from town in the nearby suburb of Mornington.
• Fletcher Lodge, 276 High St, 0800 843563, 03 477 5552, fax 03 474 5551, =>. Bed and breakfast with beautiful suites. NZ$175-NZ$550.
• Hyland House, 1003 George St, 0800 HYLAND, 03 473 1122, fax 03 473 6066,=>. Suite rooms with private bathrooms. NZ$140 - NZ$300.
• One Royal Terrace Bed & Breakfast, 1 Royal Terrace, 03 479 0772, fax 03 479 0775, =>. NZ$180-NZ$495.
• Peacocks, 304 York Place, 0800 327 333, 03 474 1300, 0276 200 345, =>. Luxury bed and breakfast with ensuite rooms. NZ$200-NZ$350.
• Station Masters Cottage, 300 York Place, 0800 327 333, 03 474 1300, 0276 200 345, =>. 3 rooms in a historic cottage. NZ$220-NZ$390.

Cope

• Albany Street Centre, 28 Albany St, 03 479 2169. M-Th 9am-5pm. Professional counselling services.

• Octagon Amcal Pharmacy, 2 George St, at the corner of the Octagon and George St, 0800 ASK AMCAL, 03 477 1289, fax 03 477 1289, =>. M-Th 8:30am-5:30pm, F 8:30am-9pm, Sa 9:30am-4pm, Su 10am-2pm. Closed Christmas day, New Years Day, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.

Get out

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