Dunedin on a Sunday

Dec 29th

Not being able to count meant two nights in Dunedin, but shared between two different places. That meant we needed to pack up everything again and get ready to go.

We looked around for a church and were guided by words like 'welcoming and friendly' as well as close. We settled on South Dunedin Baptist and the joke in the car was "I wonder if any place could be more relaxed than MWCC?". I think we found it. It started at 10:30 - which was lovely, except we arrived at 9:45, just because.

Very friendly people, very welcoming, and older than all of us by decades. They sang songs we had heard of, some oldies but goodies and stuff foreign to all of us. But it was a great service, with lots of different types of people involved. Then there was a cuppa, some good things that normal people could eat and lots of people willing to talk to us.

We got out of there after midday, and decided to go to Port Chalmers to the museum there. It's easy to get to and find and once we arrived we saw there were not one, but two cruise ships in the harbour. But this had a plus side - there was the cruise ship market to go to. They had many talented stall holders with quality handmade goods that showed heaps of variety and creativity.


Finding lunch, or at least a coffee, was next on the task list. We were greeted by a sign at the first cafe on the corner “we have run out of coffee” but that meant we found a gem of a cafe - Santosh - hidden down an alley. Another round of GF toasties, David got a pie and it was all yummmmmm.


Fed and ready to head out again, we went to the Port Chalmers Museum to see if we could find out more about our families arriving in Aotearoa. The museum is housed in the old post office building, that was standing to greet all our ancestors that arrived.



The tall spires on a skyline are always an attraction  and up the road we found Iona Church. It was undergoing repairs so is was not open for the congregation, but tourists are fine! The adjoining hall is in use though and hosts many community events.


Adventures over, we headed back into town to our new accommodation. It was a huge place and close to the university. The oven worked and had a dial that showed a temperature gauge, the laundry was no cost and not being used, so we got onto some jobs while we were there. We decided to walk to get some groceries. The one way driving street system caused errors in our walking navigation. Wasted time and effort meant we opted for driving. The tight parking was too difficult for our over zealous car as it slammed on the brakes for us and beeped and hollered away.


All the wandering and looking around we noticed that it's very much a university town. We were struck by the poor quality housing; lack of new windows/double glazing, low building maintenance and the naming of student accommodation.


Dinner, plan, sleep. Day done.

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