We felt very fortunate to have another beautiful day in Dunedin. Dunedin sits at the head of the Otago Harbor, on the South Island’s southeast coast. We arrived in Port Chalmers which is the nose of the harbor. We pulled in next to an enormous cruise ship that could have eaten ours for dinner – Ovations of the Sea. Our bus driver took us into the city along a beautiful stretch of the Otago. The channel is not very wide which is why we didn’t take the cruise ship all the way into the city.

Dunedin (pronounced Dune E din) is known for its Scottish and Maori heritage, Victorian and Edwardian architecture, and a large student population. Its name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.The population is 127,000. There are 5 universities in the city. So every year 23,000 students descend on the city.

We stopped in three places

• Signal Hill – amazing views of the city and peninsula, there were two bronze figures  representing “History” and “The Thread of Life“.

• Dunedin Railway Station, my favorite building in the city. An eclectic, revived Flemish renaissance style building, the station is constructed of dark basalt from Kokonga with lighter Oamaru stones, giving it the distinctive light and dark pattern common to many of the grander buildings in Dunedin.Inside the mosaic tile,floors were made from 750,000 tiles featuring a locomotive and related symbol. Carol, George, John, Nancy and Sue took a ride on the train, and I wish in had joined them. Our guide today was not very good.

• Unity Park – another beautiful view of the city and the peninsula, named Unity because of the alliance with the United States. There’s a bust of Admiral Byrd .

We also saw these additional highlights

• Dunedin botanical gardens
• Baldwin street, supposedly the steepest street in the world
• Old Victorian houses
• Local churches, Tiger boys school

MyLisa and I were supposed to take a ferry ride to Portobello, but we think we made a mistake and booked only one way tickets, which conflicted with our other tour. Next time I visit Dunedin, I want to see the albatross and sea lions.

We had a delicious lobster dinner last night, as we we’re leaving the harbor the sun was setting, and we could see a few albatross flying around the point where the light house sat. What a beautiful site.