NZ: Dunedin, Edinburgh of the South

Dunedin, our home away from home. It is often described as the Edinburgh of the South, founded by Scottish settlers who apparently didn't want to live in the nicer areas of New Zealand, and instead settled in an area that had almost the same bleak and rainy weather as their homeland. We were visiting them in their early spring, so it was mainly cold (highs in the 50s) and often rainy. But after our incredibly hot and brutal summer it was a nice break.

It was a relatively small town, population around 150k people. It is also home of the University of Otago, so it seems much larger than it's population suggests. In short a perfect size for a week and a half, lots of stuff to do and see. Also easy to find your way around, important since I was the only one that was capable of driving the van - a manual transmission 8 passenger + 2 infant seat vehicle on the wrong side of the road. It is lucky we survived.

Above is a picture of our home away from home. It was a very nice Victorian home that could comfortably sleep all of us - 8 adults and 2 babies. It was also spacious enough that we never felt caged. One of the best features of the house was the owner Jan. She was amazing. She picked us up from the airport in our rental van (which she arranged for us) complete with 2 car seats for the little ones. She stocked the house with boxes of toys, cribs, and high chairs. She also gave us rides to the games and picked us up afterward, made restaurant reservations, and volunteered to babysit. Stocked the kitchen with enough food that we didn't need to travel our first day, and left us details maps and suggestions on things to do with the kiddos.

Our house was about 4 blocks from the beach, with the ocean visible from the upstairs bedrooms. Above is a shot of the beach, and as you can see the beautiful New Zealand weather makes swimming look very inciting. We were lucky though, we only had one day of truly crappy weather, cold and rainy, and about 3 other days with intermittent periods of rain. Most days were sunny and the rest overcast but dry.