DunEDIN - upside down EDINburgh

  Dunedin, New Zealand
Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Tunnel Beach

If Christchurch was English and Akaroa French then Dunedin is Scottish. Many Scottish immigrated here long time ago - they are all very Kiwi now but Dunedin still makes most of the Scots heritage. Dunedin is Gaelic for Edinburgh and we are now sitting in an internet cafe in the corner of George St and Hanover St, not far from Princes St! Also our campsite those last few days was in Leith! Almost like home, especially as it was raining on the first day here. Jules had been looking forward to Dunedin for a special reason, he was missing haggis and we did manage to find some tinned haggis for him in a souvenir shop. Yum, sheep intestines!

That bit wasn't so steep...

Dunedin feels very European with gothic style buildings and lots of cafes etc but outside the centre it's definitely Kiwi again. We went for a walk on the famous Tunnel Beach and saw the biggest cliffs and most massive waves bounding on them - good photo opportunities. We've also seen some glow worms and walked on the World's steepest street. We thought we'd done that already in San Francisco but no, Kiwis have gone one better and their's climbs 1 metre for every 2.86 metres you walk up. Other than that we've just enjoyed being in a city again, went to the movies and ate out. Now it's time to move on and leave the city behind, we are aiming to be in Invercargill by the weekend to celebrate St Patrick's Day.

Some church

 And most importantly, forgot to mention this before so updating a bit late - we had a sauna in Dunedin! Incredible but true, there is a sauna on the campsite, you can get 30 minutes of heat for 10 dollars (5 euros). Not like any sauna Jo has ever seen in her life and being Finnish she's seen a fair few. It was the smallest ever and instead of stones it's heated with UV light (!). Starting temperature was a very warm 35 celcius and we finished at around 50 half an hour later. There is also no shower attached... We'll upload the pics soon. Of the sauna, not us in there.

Si Christchurch est une ville typiquement Anglaise, et si Akaroa est une ville typiquement Francaise, alors Dunedin est typiquement Ecossais! Beaucoup d'Ecossais sont venus s'installes ici au 19eme siecle et meme si la casi-totalite des habitants sont maintenant 100% kiwis, Dunedin a garde beaucoup de son heritage Ecossais! Dunedin est gaelique pour Edinburgh, nous sommes actuellement dans un cyber cafe situe entre George Street et Hanover Street, et tout pres de Princes Street (exactement comme a Edinburgh!). Nous sommes restes dans un camping pendant 3 nuits situe a Leith (endroit ou nous vivions a Edinburgh!). On s'est vraiment senti chez nous une fois arrive a Dunedin, surtout que le premier jour il pleuvait des cordes! Julien etait impatient de venir sur Dunedin pour une raison bien speciale. Il n'avait pas mange de Haggis depuis un bon bout de temps et c'etait l'occasion ou jamais...Hummmmm des intestins de mouton!

Tunnel

Dunedin et son style gothique ressemble a une ville europeenne, avec ses eglises et tous ses cafes. En revanche une fois en dehors de la ville, on se sent a nouveau en Nouvelle Zelande! Nous sommes alles faire un tour dans un endroit qui s'appelle Tunnel Beach pour y voir des falaises et des vagues enormes. Une bonne opportunite pour prendre de belles photos. Nous avons aussi vu une foret remplis de ver luisant et avons grimpe la rue la plus "pentue" au Monde. Nous pensions avoir tout vu a San Francisco mais non les Kiwis, font encore mieux avec 1 metre de denivele tout les 2.86 metres. A part ca, nous avons profite des avantages de la ville, cinema, restaurants, avant notre retour a la "non-civilisation". Nous partons aujourd'hui direction le Sud et Invercargill. Nous serons la bas pour le weekend pour celebrer la St Patrick!

And he ate all this