Bluff & Round 1 Dunedin

My favorite part of not having firm plans is ending up in unexpected places. With less than 12 hours to go til our “Pure Chevre Farm” departure, we discovered the annual Bluff Oyster Festival was slated for the following day. Bluff is famous for its oysters. With the Invercargill Brewery providing another lucrative reason to head that direction, we made up our minds pretty quickly!

Proof of having made the right choice was forthcoming when a local man approached me in the ticket line and offered me a free ticket — no strings attached. Score! Soon we were in, holding tasty bottles of Mac’s microbrews, and standing in line to educate

ourselves at the numerous food stalls while various musicians graced the stage. I confess to being a seafood lover, and most of what we tried was great! I ate my first sea urchin. It melted in my mouth, and I became an instant fan! We also had fried oysters, seafood pizza, marinated scallops, blue cod in coconut cream, and raw oysters on the half shell. Slurp!

Tour over, we were off for the south island’s most vibrant city — Dunedin! A good college friend of mine, Laurel (whose wedding we went to this past summer) studied abroad here, and I looked forward to retracing some of her steps. We finally got up the nerve to “couchsurf,” and we weren’t disappointed! Usually sussing out a good host is a long, arduous, fun-free process, but this time we lucked out! We turned up at Rachel and Scott’s, shared our Invercargill Brewery souvenirs, and set out for the world’s smallest bar (Mu Bar). By the end of the night, we’d been to half the evening establishments in downtown Dunedin. We finished off our soiree dancing on the glass floor of “The Fever Club” – colored lights flashing from below while a disco ball threw light on the white, 70’s, moulded fixtures.

A cultural aside — Dunedin nightlife definitely has a dresscode. I am comfortable enough in my own skin that it took me until the wee hours of the morning to notice that I was the *only* woman not wearing a dress/skirt. Given that blue jeans are basically out of style, not a single other female was wearing them. This, coupled with insanely high hem-lines, made for entertaining people-watching stints playing the “shortest skirt” game. I’m thankful I don’t reside in a place where I’m subjected to mainstream clothing standards — I don’t think I could stomach skinny jeans.

The plans to hike a nearby peak overlooking the city were slow to get moving the next morning as we all stumbled around on precious few hours of sleep, etc. Nonetheless, we crested the summit of Buttar’s Peak to blue clear skies and stunning 360 views. A jutting spire of rock tested our courage as we took turns ascending for photo ops. We also visited the “Organ Pipes” – an outcrop of columnar basalt — where we ate lunch and got lost trying to bushwhack our way down.

Rachel and Scott were back to adult life the following day — she is working on her PhD and studies seabirds and island restoration, Scott is teaching at a Dunedin school thanks to his ESL experience. We spent the day driving out the long peninsula with great harbor views. We checked out the aquarium and the albatross visitor’s center before hiking down to the gorgeous Sandfly Bay. The

return trip, along the crest of the peninsula was an amazingly scenic drive. We were able to see St. Kilda Beach, visit the infamous St. Clair Beach and watch all the surfers, and find our way to Tunnel Beach before the afternoon was up. As daylight faded, we hiked up the “world’s steepest street” (have they been to Bolivia or Peru?) and wandered around the botanic gardens (another amazing aviary!). After dinner and a quiet evening watching a flick with our hosts, we set off for the countryside to wwoof with Marion and Lee!

Click here for photos of the free-ticket giver, the steepest street, pinnacle photos and more!