Ramble
Quest - Delights of Dunedin.
Now I'm really trekked out and just looking for some of the comforts of a town. Fortunately, Dunedin fits the bill perfectly. It's a college town with lots of good, cheap places to eat and plenty of Internet cafes. They even have one in McDonald's, which is good, but the best are Kymer's ($NZ3 with a fast connection, over an Asian restaurant) and the Arc (slow but free! and with Mac beer on tap). The Arthur's Arms servers good pub lunches. After discovering Minami, which has very fine sashimi bento boxes for the twilight zone price of $NZ5, I kick myself for cooking a few meals in the hostel.
I'm staying at the Next Stop, which is good enough. Dunedin is supposed to have the world's steepest street and the street the Next Stop is on is almost as steep as the record holder. The Otego Museum has a small but very well displayed eclectic collection.
The botanic gardens are excellent. I linger in the rose garden, savoring their fragrance made all the more special by the fact that it is December and Chicago is having snowstorms and frigid temperatures while I'm enjoying perfectly sunny blue summer skies. I hike along the slow moving Water of Leith, whose rocky banks are blanketed with flowers, then follow a path along shady Ross Creek to the resevoir. S maze of trails branch out from here.
Back in town I finally buy some new gym shoes for hiking and take in a movie. Good news with the second Harry Potter movie is that it is very faithful to the book. Bad news is that this wasn't a very good book.
Dunedin is a good town for architecture. Some of the campus buildings are good as are older buildings near the Square. The railway station is a must see.
I liked this place a lot and could have stayed longer, but I needed to head towards Christchurch to catch a flight. So, a fond farewell and on to Oamaru.