New Edinburgh

Dunedin is Galiec for Edinburgh. It was settle by the Scottish in the late 1800s. They designed the city after Edinburgh, the buildings, the streets, and even the street names. The difference. Scotland is much older. Dunedin is just a baby. After getting off the bus, I made my way to their local brewery, Speights, for some tastings. It was here I was able to watch my first football game since arriving in NZ. It was extremely chilly in Dunedin; cold enough I purchased another thermal layer. My plan the following morning was to venture out to the Otago Peninsula. I met a French girl during breakfast who was also planning to check out the peninsula, so we decided to take the bus and venture out together. When we got off the bus we felt very alone Not a lot of tourist, cars or people in general. We did speak to the store clerk who gave us some pointers on a nearby beach. The walk was long. We followed a gravel road for 90% of it. We walked past an inlet that was almost more like a swamp. We saw lots of sheep, and lots of birds. The birds we dive bombing us. It was freaky at first, but then it became comical. I have no idea why they were dive bombing us. The weather was horrible. Absolutely horrific. The wind was so strong it would cause us to stumble. At times it also started to rain. Many times we contemplated on turning back. But we continued on and made it to the beach. It was beautiful. The sun came out, and the wind even died down. We hung out for a bit; I drew some pictures in the sand. It was a good time. The tide snuck up on me while I was drawing a picture in the sand. I took off running, and all my pictures were gone. With the tide coming up there wasn’t a whole lot we could do on the beach anymore. We decided to make the trek back to the bus stop. We took a slightly different way. The scenery was better. The inlet was less swamp like. It was still really windy, but sometimes we were sheltered from it which was nice. We made it to the bus stop and made it back to Dunedin. At that point, I decided to make dinner and then check out Otago University. It was a beautiful campus. I think graduation is soon because I could see students taking pictures in their caps and gowns. The rain to come down so I made my way back to the backpackers. The following morning I explored around town one last time before taking the bus back to Queenstown. I went to the art gallery and the settlers museum. I saw the first Church of Otago, and the first jail. I took pictures of all the old timey looking buildings. The weather this day was the best weather I had seen in a while. Of course, since I would be leaving that day. It was still chilly, but at least the sun was peaking through. After my time in Dunedin, I made my way to the bus stop for my journey to Queenstown. The ride was beautiful, but the road was windy, and the bus driver was going fast. I think to make up for lost time. But unfortunately for me, this made me queasy I was going to be in Queenstown for less than 12 hours. Just enough time to grab some dinner and prepare for my journey to the west coast the following morning. I have been to the west coast once before. Greymouth if you remember. That is further north on the coast, and now I was going to explore the central and southern part. Hokitika and Franz Josef to be excat.