We arrived in Dunedin on Saturday in the late morning, and had just enough time to get to the weekly farmers’ market at the nice–looking railroad station. The first thing we noticed is that it is summer, with cherries, nectarines, peaches and apricots for sale. The second thing that caught our attention was that there seemed to be a lot of college students everywhere. Turns out classes begin on Monday at the University of Otago, the largest in the nation.

Dunedin is a Scottish city, and the central area was closed to cars for a competition among eight or more bagpipe companies.

We spent a part of the afternoon walking around the center of the city, which has attractive buildings. Here is the First Church of Otago (1875).

Municipal Chambers (1880).

The Railway Station (1906) and the Law Courts (1902).

The next morning we drove over to Baldwin Street, supposedly the steepest street in the world. Here is a map of Dunedin; Baldwin is the red star.

At first, the street doesn’t look much steeper than those near our home.

Looking back down, it definitely is steep.

Looking back down, it definitely is steep.

Here are two photographs of a house on the street, angled to show the steepness.

Out next destination is the Tunnel Beach Walkway; it is at the light blue wave on the map.

It is a good walk and the view is lovely. Out on the peninsula—for scale—two people can be seen.

A close up.

After lunch, we went to the Otago Museum. The museum has a life–size replica of a Moa, once the world’s biggest bird. Alas, it is now extinct.

The museum has a good collection of Maori artifacts, including this sea–going boat.

This is a carving made for a Maori meeting house.

Outside of the museum, college students were enjoying the fine day, with support from a fleet of food trucks.

Later in the afternoon, we went off with a small tour group to see rare Yellow–Eyed Penguins (yellow star) and the Royal Albatross Centre (white star). The first sighting of wildlife was a Hooker Sea Lion taking a nap.

Once we got off the bus, we walked down a trail to a private, undeveloped beach. The penguins, we were told, do not like people.

But, first, we have to have at least one picture of sheep in this blog. Here you go!

Our guide told us the penguins come ashore about this time of the day—late afternoon through early evening.

Down on the beach. The first penguin appeared out of the surf a few minutes later and started walking across the beach, headed for the hillside.

A few minutes later, our penguin passed two others and started its climb.

The tour organization has a hide out, where guests can watch penguins walking around in the forest. Here is a baby.

We watched this penguin climbing the hill, and every so often it would halt and sit down.

We then took a short walk over to look at seals. This pup had just finished nursing, and was now resting.

Our next stop was to look at royal albatrosses. They are really big, but it was sundown and the photographs did not come out well. 

The next morning we left for the village of Te Anau, our staging spot for Milford Sound.

We drove from the area around Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park to Clyde, and then on to Dunedin.

Next—Milford Sound.