Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Southland Otago road trip: Dunedin

Only 2 hours of driving today, we were pretty laid-back, taking it easy. We reached Balclutha after about 30 mins drive from Kaka Point. Man, this town looked just like a ghost town early in the morning.

Balclutha township *shudder*


The (ghost) bridge!


Saw this when we were just about entering Dunedin district


Awww......a love shape lawn! How romantic. It is a private land. Must be for the wife. Hehehe


Dunedin, the Edinburgh of the South houses the very first New Zealand university and has been regarded as New Zealand's architectural heritage capital. There are a lot of well kept Victorian and Edwardian buildings in the city. A trip back to Dunedin brought back a lot of memories. Standing right in front of the famous Otago University clock tower, I wallowed in my time here as a 1st year university student. All the dormant images suddenly came to life flushing back like a movie film, non-stop. And it is still running as I am typing this entry.

We first made a visit to the newly built Chinese Garden. Small but beautiful.


Facade of the Chinese Garden








Dunedin old train station (still in operation though)




We then had our lunch at one Japanese restaurant






Dunno what name Church. Sorry, forgot the name.


We later made our way to the one and only castle in New Zealand, Larnach Castle, built in 1871.




A lot of things has changed after so many years, new campus buildings, new hostels/student apartments etc. I asked Rick to take me back to Dalmore Convent House, the hostel I stayed. Amazingly, the house is still standing strong (It was very very old and kind of shabby by the way). But the surrounding has changed so much that I almost got lost in the area. New student apartments have been built all around it and the grass field where we used to have our snow fight has long gone, so is the goat.


Rick was stunned seeing the convent house, he couldn't believe this is the place I stayed. It is so run-down that he thinks it is not a house for human but "something" else. Hahahahaha. Well, it was the cheapest hostel at that time! And, yes, I did hear some scary stories about the house while staying there! *shudder*


Otago University Clock tower




It is the oldest university in New Zealand and definitely the best place for studying if you fancy those old european atmosphere



Old train station at dusk


We visited the world steepest street the next morning and indulged ourselves in scrumptious breakfast before jetting back to Wellington.


World steepest street - Baldwin street





Here is the short video clip


~The end of Southland Otago road trip~



Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Travelling makes people feel happy. I hope I can travel so much as you too.

Doreen said...

Yes, it does! Being in a new environment seeing different scenery can really take your mind off your boring routine. I love travelling, and really hope to travel as much as I could before commitment arrives.

eastcoastlife said...

Ghost town! It looks eerie. :)

A beautiful Chinese Garden in New Zealand!

pinkylicious said...

Nice trip. It sure feels good to be able to visit such beautiful and memorable places :). Btw, i like the Chinese Garden ;).

Doreen said...

EastCoastLife:
Yeah, so scary hor and we were the only human being there. *shudder*

emotionalistic:
For me, as long as I can get out of Wellington, I feel good already. Hahaha

LEon said...

The Ghost bridge look spooky. Some good photography you have there.