Some of you will probably be very pleased to read that I have finally reached the end of my masses of photos of Dunedin and various other towns in southern NZ! This took WAY longer than I expected, since I’ve kind of been slotting these posts in on days when I didn’t have anything else to write about!

Anyway! I hope some people have found them interesting, and have added New Zealand to their Bucket List of countries to visit!

The last place we stopped off on the way home was Oamaru, which, I was surprised to discover, is apparently "The Steampunk Capital of NZ". Heh. Who’d have ever thought that NZ even HAD a steampunk capital!?

Before we visited the historic district, we stopped for a walk in the Chinese-themed part of the botanic gardens, which had a very cool entryway.

I spy with my little eye…the Flying Spaghetti Monster making an appearance in the top photo!!

I really liked the historic district, and would have loved to have spent a bit more time wandering around there. Have to go back, I suppose!

This was one of those places that had something cool to photograph around every corner! How awesome is that lady’s costume!?

We stumbled across what we concluded was some kind of theatre, filled with a few odd, and slightly creepy characters! I suspect I would have LOVED whatever super lucky theatre company has this as their space!

This couple didn’t say very much, but they didn’t mind posing for a photo either.

Some regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I’ve been a bit absent for the last week or so. This is because mum and I have been on holiday in Dunedin. :)

I did, however, take a lot of photos. 494 photos in 5 days, to be exact. To some people that might sound like a lot, but for me, it really isn’t. Unlike some other bloggers, I am not a super-awesome-professional-quality photographer. I tend to end up with huge numbers of duds (blurry, too much glare, random people photobombing etc), so taking hundreds of them means I end up with at least a few which are good! I know. Thank goodness I don’t use a film camera, right!?

Aaaanyway! While we were in Dunedin, we went and did quite a few cool little things I thought I would share, since people always seem to like reading about my teeny little island in the middle of nowhere! :)

On our drive from Christchurch to Dunedin on Friday morning, we stopped in a VERY small town (just over 1000 people) named Rakaia. The most exciting thing in Rakaia is the giant salmon.

For years and years and years I had actually assumed that this was a trout, but considering that across the driveway from this large fish was a visitors centre and restaurant aptly named "Salmon World", I think it’s safe to assume that an enormous trout would have been a little odd.

We stopped for lunch in Timaru. It was wet and gross, as can be seen below. :/ It’s ok on a fine day though, it has nice Botanical Gardens.

PS: For anybody thinking that I was driving and taking photographs at the same time, remember that in NZ, the driver sits on the right-hand side of the car and we drive on the left-hand side of the road. Mum was driving. :)

Our next stop was Waimate, yet another teeny little town. The most exciting thing I spotted there was a very cute little shop named Vintage Chic. Christchurch doesn’t have many of these shops anymore (thanks, earthquake) so I spent a bit of time wandering around in it and contemplating pretty dresses and floral teacups. Sadly, we had to keep on driving to get to Dunedin at a reasonable hour, so no exciting purchases were made. :( I did take a photo of their shop window, though, and left wishing I lived closer to it. :)

After stopping off in Oamaru for another break (which, oddly, I didn’t take photos of!?), we arrived at our hotel. After we checked in, we discovered the following sign in our room (apologies for blurriness)…

I don’t know whether it was down to the fact we’d been in the car all day with not much fresh air or exercise, but mum and I both found the description of the "nearest exit" rather humourous. "By going out the door of this room." How…novel. o.O

We got Subway for dinner and spent the rest of the evening driving around Dunedin doing a bit of personal, family-related sightseeing. I hadn’t been to Dunedin since 2004, and am convinced it was larger (and more hilly!!) than I remembered.

Speaking of hills, Dunedin is home to Baldwin Street, which is, apparently, the steepest street in the world. We did not drive up it, and after having been in the hospital three days earlier, I was advised against "strenuous exercise", so we didn’t walk either, sadly. We did, however, park next to it so I could take some photos.

Yes, the pictures are real, no, it’s not a set from Inception, and the only editing I have done to them is a bit of cropped and brightening. It really is that steep!

Could you imagine living on this street, or walking your dog up and down it every day!? Maybe once, just so I could say I’d done it, but I surely wouldn’t want to do it every day!

As for why it’s so ridiculously steep, Wikipedia informs me that…

The street’s steepness was unintentional. As with many other parts of Dunedin, and indeed New Zealand, streets were laid out in a grid pattern with no consideration for the terrain, usually by planners in London.

So basically, ye olden day towne planners decided it was going to be a residential street, but had not ever actually visited NZ, so didn’t realise this area was in fact probably not very suitable. FAIL…and yet…EPIC WIN!

Another EPIC WIN for Baldwin Street….Jaffa racing. Combine Jaffas, which are small, round, chocolates with a hard, red shell with a ridiculously steep street, and this happens…

Photo taken from the top of the street looking down to the finish point at the bottom. It’s a charity fundraiser and people pay to sponsor the Jaffas. Crazy, right?

That’s about all we did on our first day in Dunedin, but I did also see this awesome rainbow bus shelter, which I really liked.

Day II post is scheduled and will be up tomorrow! :)