San Fransisco of the Southern Hemisphere

Dunedin is almost a fairytale city. Set in the steep, rolling hills of the coast with stunning architecture, gorgeous harbor views, chic cafes overlooking seaside surfing action, an enormous botanic garden, dozens of affordable international restaurants, and factories producing delights including chocolates, gourmet ice cream, and microbrews. It was like San Francisco, minus a few million people. Heaven!

After our WOF debacle was over, we managed to visit the impressive public art gallery, the iconic railway station, the university campus, and the unbelievable array of exhibits at the Otago Museum. Before leaving the city we also managed to visit Emerson’s Brewery and got a tour from Emerson himself! He taught us about different timing for hops, the use of glycol jackets on bright

tanks, what goes on at the maltsters in making the various malts, and that a brewery can never have too much capital. I think we’re almost ready to open our own!

The highlight of our return to Dunedin was our return to Rachel & Scott’s. We made it to their place in time to catch a show at Carey’s Bay Hotel down toward the harbor mouth in idyllic Port Chalmers. The music was amazing. How good? So good that our hosts — attending several live shows a month for the past five months — haven’t seen one better. Hana Fahy’s lead vocals are worth googling for a listen.

We one-upped ourselves the next night and made history attending the last Highlander’s Rugby game at the “House of Pain.” Carisbrook Stadium is being replaced by a newer, shiner edifice for the rapidly approaching, New-Zealand-hosted 2011 Rugby World Cup. We tagged along with Scott and his co-worker Oliver who has season tickets. Rugby is far more action-packed than American football (called ‘grid-iron’ here). The clock stops only at half-time, and the ball is almost always moving. Much of the time it’s buried in a pile of bodies, but special pile-up techniques usually have it out and moving back down the field within a few seconds. Game notables: (1) for some bizarre reason, the marketing manager of the Highlanders decided they needed new colors/jerseys and debuted the change from maroon, gold, and blue to green and white at the game. Obviously fans weren’t pleased. A man in front of us spent half the game shouting, “Roger Clark’s a wanker.” (2)

Disturbing half-time entertainment. Two teams of young university women pile onto the field to engage in a tug-of-war battle while the announcer makes degrading comments to the tune of them being hopeless, idiotic, silly, pathetic wenches. I was unimpressed. (3) Terrace section — nearly half the game’s patrons crowd into a block of concrete terraces where the seats have been removed. It’s a cheap ($10) way to see the game! (4) Massive Speight’s consumption. I think every single attendee had a can in their hand. The afterparty was at the world’s smallest bar, followed by a trip to the cask-pouring Albar where we conversed for a good hour with a (recently) former Seattlite.

The next morning, we lucked into an unexpected second Saturday at the Farmer’s Market before dropping off Rachel and Scott at their Queenstown departure point. Dunedin was a perfectly timed* and thoroughly enjoyable piece of our New Zealand adventure!

More game photos, Dunedin architecture, and one horrible bar photo by clicking here.

* upon arrival in the city, our vehicle registration was due for renewal, our WOF inspection was about to expire, Pat’s pinky infection had escalated to ‘definitely-need-antibiotics’ level, our telecom USB modem needed reloaded, we were out of basic groceries most affordable (ironically) in cities, and the quest to find a pair of jeans for a 6’7” frame had reached critical status (current/only jeans in actual tatters).