Dunedin? or Was that a Mini-Wellington?, Dunedin, New Zealand

Now this is the most I’ve spent in the city of Dunedin and I really wish I had more time here, despite being around for a week or so. I remember coming here for a few days about 5 years ago, of which one of the days ended up being a one-dayer to Queenstown & back. And the remaining couple of days ended up being very touristy as I was here with family back then. This time around however, coming here as a solo traveller and exploring the in & out of this city as well as some surrounds like the Peninsula, made me feel like wanting to spend more time than I actually did. The weather during the week had been up and down with cold & rains at different parts through the week but when the sun was out, I did make the most of it. One of the evenings when I was strolling around the Octagon I picked up a small talk with a Aussie who said “Wellington is a Mini-Melbourne & Dunedin is a Mini-Wellington” and trust me I couldn’t agree more. 

Dunedin in a lot of ways is very similar to Wellington, except for the winds of course. The culture, the people, the geography, the cold etc all of it didn’t make me miss Wellington much at all. And every time I was out of Dunedin and drove back into the city, it certainly gave a feel of driving into Wellington CBD. Particularly the drive from North Dunedin/Mosgiel into the CBD, the motorway takes you through a valley and you can see the harbour along with the city with the hilly background, as you enter. Very very similar to driving into Wellington CBD via SH1 through Ngauranga gorge. More over the peninsula drive feels like just the Shelly Bay drive while the Signal Hill Lookout feels like Mt.Vic Lookout ! It felt like Wellington all over. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).