Continuing south... to Dunedin
Friday 2004-04-02
As much as I'm enjoying Akaroa I have to leave and head for Dunedin. It's about a 5 hour drive south of Christchurch. After leaving Akaroa I wanted to stop in Christchurch for a couple of hours, so I didn't acutally get on the road until mid-afternoon. Most of the drive to Dunedin was along or near the coast, but only the last hour or so was really scenic. I arrived at my B&B a little after dark - around 7:00 pm. Once I settled in I asked my B&B host about a restaurant. He suggested that I try the Irish Pub down the street. So I did! I had some great Irish Stew, a sandwich and of course a pint of Guinness beer. As I was finishing dinner an Irish band took the stage and the place started to fill up a little. I decided to stay a while, listen to the band and finish off another half pint of Guinness.

Dunedin is a really nice town. It is a 'big' town by New Zealand standards. The population is about 120,000. It was settled by the Scottish and in fact 'Dunedin' is the old Gaelic name for Edinburgh. It's a town built on a bay surrounded by hills, with lots of Victorian style homes. In that sense it reminds me a lot of San Francisco.