Dunedin

Dunedin Day 1

Our weekend trip continued south to Dunedin, on Friday. The town is known for it's artsy murals and is sometimes called "Little Edinburgh" because of the architectural influence of the Scottish immigrants who settled there. It's also located at the base of the Otago Peninsula, known for it's wildlife - penguins, seals, and albatross.  

We took a quick detour to visit the Moeraki Boulders on the drive from Oamaru. These naturally spherical boulders were totally unique, not to mention they made a great place for the kids to monkey around and stretch their legs from the road trip...

Dunedin - we arrived around 1:00pm, checked into the Airbnb, and ditched our luggage. The weather turned sunny and we took advantage by driving out to the Otago Pennisula. New Zealand has great informational websites created by the DOC (department of conservation), so we consulted that first and found a hike that would take us from farmland to beach - hike #21 labeled on the map and described below. You can see the city of Dunedin on the map where all the roads are north of #41. 

We were really hoping for some more penguin and seal spottings at the beach, but had no such luck. It was still beautiful and worth doing! 

The hike started among the green hills and farmlands filled with sheep! 

Hello Mr. Sheep

I think it's time for a haircut

Next, we walked across some brush and marshland, through the "pyramids..."

Stop embarrassing us mom! The wind picked up and I had to protect my sensitive ears 😂

Time to slide down the sand dune to the shore! 

Jay ripped his back pant pocket off doing this move

We made it to the ocean - wild, loud, and exposed. 

Time to climb back up and out for the return treck back through the "pyramids" and sheep. 

Just a little sand in the shoe...NBD

We found a place for refreshments and a basket of fries along the harbor, post hike. There also happened to be a food truck where we pulled over, so we ordered food to go from there for dinner and took it back home to  eat. It was a long day of driving and exploring; we were ready for some chill time! 

Cafe stop to refuel post hike 

Back at the airbnb

looking in from the deck and back at the  harbor from our deck

Dunedin Day 2 

Tunnel Beach: This hike is right near the city just about a10 min. drive south. You have to, or should, hike to tunnel beach at low tide so you can actually walk down on the boulders. Looking at the tide timetables online, we knew low tide was at 11:00am, so we planned our adventure to tunnel beach accordingly. It was gorgeous (who's surprised-lol). 

First glimpse of the tunnel

And now walking through another tunnel to get to the beach

Jay and Maggie exploring

Having fun with the selfie stick! 

These two dipped their toes in the water - brrr

After tunnel beach we had lunch at Vogel St. Cafe and then found a used bookstore. Jay geeked out and found some classic sci-fi books. Maggie found The Hunger Games and Finn got some old comics. We also visited the Otago Settler's Museum. The kids especially enjoyed the room with all the old portraits and looking up names of immigrants on the computers. There were no McMahon's, but we did find some Johnstons :). The wind picked up and it was drizzling by the time we left the museum, so we stopped half way on our walk home at a pub, walked the kids home and fed them, then Jay and I headed to Speight's Ale House for dinner. Speight's is an institution around here and their original ale house was just down the steps from our rental. 

Many, many murals all over the city - here are just a few we got on camera...

My Favorite 

Zoom in on the mural blending seamlessly with the sky 

Next stop the Settler's Museum...

Trying to search for any relatives in the museum...

A wall of crochet roses for Maggie Rose 

Finn showing off some killer dance moves at the museum 

Time for a quick refreshment (and warm up) at the pub! 

Maggie's new favorite drink here - dry lemonade with raspberry cordial 

Speight's for dinner

203 stairs down to Speights - it's that brick building at the end

Sunday morning we loaded up to head back home, but first we had to watch The All Blacks win their match against Ireland in the Rugby World Cup! We stopped by the world's steepest street in Dunedin, Baldwin Street; evidently it's in the Guinness Book of World Records. You can drive up it, and there are houses lined along either side. We parked at the bottom and made the kids huff it up to the top. 

This isn't a good sign Finn, we've only walked five feet

Nice view from the top

Help! We're sliding down Baldwin Street

One more stop in Oamaru on the way home to let the kids play at the park and visit the Steampunk Museum that we didn't have time to see on the way to Dunedin. 

Channeling his inner Humphrey, or Oreo, in the hamster wheel at the park


Steampunk Museum - What is steampunk you say?? A kind of creepy mix of scifi, metal, and the Victorian era. Not really my cup of tea, or Finn's (he had trepidation entering every room in the museum), but it was certainly different and something you don't see every day.