Dunedin, "Edinburgh of the South" (Chris)

Our Maori bus driver was very animated and told us many amusing stories on the first leg of our magic bus journey. We were later told that not all of them were true, but more part of the unique Maori sense of humour.

Dunedin railway station - the most photographed building in all of New Zealand.

We arrived in Dunedin to find elaborate architecture in a Grand Victorian city due to its affluent gold rush era. Founded by Scottish settlers, Dunedin means Edinburgh in Celtic. The driver pointed out the statue of Robert Burns, still has haggis ceremonies and also produces whisky locally.

The 'animal attic', a classification of nearly the entire animal kingdom.

Later that week we often made our way to explore town after our mornings woofing. First, we visited the gorgeous train station, then the settlers museum which had photo galleries full of old black and white mugs (all looked thrilled to be in NZ). We looked up the Bourkes in the electronic catologue since we had seen many a bourke street, bourke pass and even a bourke village. We found there were many irsih immigrants on ship dockets who left from the port of Glasgow for Dunedin. Because Dunedin is home to the country's first university - 30% of the population is now home to immigrating students. A walk down the high street was filled with student cafes and bars. We were a little puzzled by the tendency for younger kids to stroll barefoot down the main throughfares.

A mountain of crunchies bars at Cadbury world.

Steph was excited to call in at cadbury world and stock up on exotic varities of chocolate bars, not available in the UK. I was eager to visit the local transport museum that boasted Dunedin's trams - In 1879 this was the only city outside the USA to have a tram system.