Sunday in Dunedin

Sunday morning in Dunedin, we woke to light rain and cold. Fortified by the continental breakfast complete with large pot of hot pressed coffee served by the owner of The Brothers hotel, we set out down the hill to the nearby Anglican church. Having worshipped God as manifested in His creation the Sunday before in Wanaka, we were eager for a church service even though we knew we would have to sneak out early to catch our 11 AM walking tour of Dunedin. Once again, the liturgy, choir, organ, and sermon were soul filling.

On exiting church, we discovered the rain had intensified. We walked the short block to the iSite and fortunately were able to rebook our 2 hour walking tour for Monday. After store browsing and lunch, we retrieved the car and an extra umbrella and spent the day seeing other sights around town.

Our first stop was the Dunedin Chinese Garden. It is the only authentic Chinese Garden in NZ having been pre-fabricated and assembled in Shanghai then dismantled, transported, and reconstructed in Dunedin in 2008. Although the plantings are still young, the garden is beautiful and tranquil.

Visiting historical homes is always interesting to us and given the weather, we headed to Olveston, a “masterpiece of modernity” built in 1904 by the Theomin family. The house had central heating, an in-house telephone system, heated towel racks, and electric lights and heaters run exclusively by generator. The house remained in the family until given in trust to the city of Dunedin in 1966, and the feeling of a family home with “cluttered charm” is maintained. (Hmmmm, is that what would be written of my house?? I’m thinking it would just be cluttered, no charm!) On the beautiful grounds in its own glass garage is the family’s 1921 Fiat 510 convertible touring car in complete running order and shined to perfection! The elderly, feisty tour guide was a fount of information and kept us all in order on the tour. Fun note: we saw foot poofs (pouffes) for the first time--small pillows on the floor in front of the chairs in the ladies’ sitting room on which the ladies would put their feet and then drop their dresses to the floor around it to keep their toes cozy. A toe cozy??

Last stop was Baldwin Street--the steepest street in the world (Guiness Book of World Records verified)! It is indeed incredibly steep at a 35% grade.  We also learned that the original grid for the city was laid out in England site unseen. Consequently, the streets are quite straight BUT some are very steep.