Dunedin is a wonderful city in the southeast part of the South Island. It is the second largest city behind Christchurch in the south, and renowned for its Scottish heritage, university life, and somewhat iffy weather!

The City of Dunedin web site has heaps of terrific information about the history of the city, its location, its people, and its offerings, which are legion.

It can be a little cool here - temps usually range between 4 and 15 C here in early May (between 40 and 65 F).

While the bustling city of Dunedin is the commerce center of the entire region, and thousands of people flock to the metro area for work and shopping, it is also bordered by some of the best wildlife viewing and scenic beaches in the country.

Our home is in an area called the flats, in the suburb of St. Clair. While only a 10 minute drive into the heart of downtown, we're also only a 5 minute drive from the start of the peninsula, and only a 10 minute walk from lovely St Clair beach. Of course the water is a little brisk, since it seems to come straight from Antarctica, but surfers are always around, the wetsuits that Tam and Sara have bought have helped, and the sunsets are magnificent.

The University of Otago is in Dunedin, so there are over 20,000 students wandering around this city of just over 100,000. That influence has resulted in terrific cafes and restaurants as well as a general vitality that you don't recognize until all the students come back to campus at the beginning of February.

We got very used to having dozens of places to grab a panini sandwich, a scone, carrot cake, and hot chocolate or tea or a flat white.

One of the great things about living in Dunedin is its close proximity to walking tracks. Mt Cargill and Mt Flagstaff stretch just above the city, as this picture from the summit of Mt Cargill shows.

A green belt surrounds the city, the Otago Peninsula has a wide variety of tracks just a few minutes from downtown, and hikers interested in walks through forest, highlands, or wind swept coast need only look at one of the many guide books available and strike out for an easy stroll or a track marked 'route.'

From our perspective, there are a number of things that we have loved about the city. Its downtown area, centered at the Octagon and overseen by the regal City Council building here, provides lots of shopping opportunities and people watching.

We were lucky to be able to be in Dunedin during its summer festival, which included The Festival of Thieves street market.

Of course, our time in Dunedin wouldn't be complete without a mention of a couple of our favorite things from the city: Speights and the Highlanders!

Speights is the Pride of the South, the local beer that stands for much more than just alcohol. The advertising is based on the myth of the Southern Man, the stalwart and steady guy who doesn't talk much, but works hard and does what is right. And the beer is good too! I particularly like the Distinction Ale -

And of course, we've become huge Highlanders fans! Otago has a long strong rugby tradition and we live about a 20 minute walk to Carisbrook, the House of Pain, the old stadium where the Highlanders play. I can't say that I understand everything about rugby, because there are any number of times that I'm watching the game and wondering why the game has stopped, why they're redoing the scrum, what the scrum even is, why there is a penalty, why they're kicking the ball out of bounds on purpose, why all the players don't get seriously hurt in every game after I see the collisions . . . actually, come to think of it, I don't really understand much of the fine points at all! But we enjoy going to the games and rooting for the Highlanders against the Blues, the Reds, the Brumbies, the Hurricanes, and the rest of the Super 12.