Many cities are built around a central square, but Dunedin planners got carried away and designed their city around an Octagon. Thankfully they did not try and bring roads into all sides of the Octagon, and only 4 roads actually meet at the Octagon. We stayed one block from the Octagon so we were very central.
After lunch we headed east of the city on the Otago Peninsula. We had some great views of the harbour and city from the hilltops along the peninsula.
Our destination was the Royal Albatross Colony on Taiaroa Head at the northeastern tip of the peninsula, where we had booked a tour, hoping to see some albatrosses.
The albatross is like a giant gull with a wingspan of up to 3 metres (10 feet), weighs 8-9 Kg, can fly up to 120 KPH, and spends half of its life at sea - it may stay at sea for 5-7 years at a time. I was impressed.
Taiaroa Head has been a key defensive position since Maori times and has housed modern weapons since 1888 when there was believed to be a threat of a Russian invasion.
Our tour provided much info on the albatross and we spent 30 minutes in a hide watching the nesting and juvenile birds. We were lucky to have a really windy afternoon, as the albatrosses love to fly in strong winds.
After the albatross viewing our tour took us through the gun emplacements and I got to rotate the 6" (18.5 ton) gun around on its platform....with a little help from hydraulics.
Tired and cold after our afternoon outdoors we headed back to the city and a last dinner at a Thai restaurant.
Dunedin is home to the steepest street in the world but we saw it on our last visit here. However the view below caught my eye on View Street, right next to our hotel.
Tomorrow we fly back to Wellington and semi-reality.
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