Emily took us on a driving tour of Dunedin on our last day down south. (It’s pronounced dun-EE-din, by the way. When I first saw the word I came up with various other ways it might sound, I think based on some memory of the word Dúnedain from Lord of the Rings. Which I have no idea how to pronounce.)

The train station (and a lot of the downtown area) is a marvel of gold rush optimism. There’s no real passenger rail anymore, just a tourist trip each day.

Many of the area’s early colonists were Scottish, and thus the most prominent statue on the town square is Bobby Burns. Dunedin prides itself on being a city of letters, and has the largest university in the country. And really the only one where students can get the full on-campus experience.

Around the base of the statue is a sort of NZ Poets Walk of Fame. We’d not heard of John A Lee before, but it’s a good name!

The Speight’s brewery lets you drink their magical spring water from a tap on the street. When I’m in a non-craft beer situation, for no particular reason Speight’s is my tipple of choice, so I was pleased to visit this place. We didn’t have time to do the full tour, unfortunately.

The world’s steepest street on the way into town the previous day. The locals don’t want you driving up it, and rain + schedule meant we didn’t try to walk. Next time!

We drove to a high lookout, and then out along that coastline just to look at the scenery. Beautiful.

The weather is apparently pretty cold and miserable in the winter, and even on this beautiful summer day it wasn’t warm. But otherwise… a really nice place that would be great to spend some more time in.