Our first stop was St. Dominic's Priory. It was unfortunately slowly decaying into ruins, but at the time of its building, it was used as accommodations for the nuns (The Sisters of the Dominican Order) who arrived in New Zealand in 1871. It served as a convent until 1983.
Ok, sometimes my "ests" can be a bit stretching it.
Located near the priory was St. Joseph's, the Catholic cathedral. Construction began in 1878 and was mostly completed by 1886.
These two spires are the same ones you could see from the brewery bridge.
There were many lovely stained glass windows.
Need a bowl? No problem... the city is located right by the sea so just grab a nice shell!
Our next church on the list was St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral, which had been closed the previous day. We walked up the steps with a busload of tourists. The land was purchased in 1855, but the first church was built with such poor quality stone that the tower had to be torn down after only a few years. It became a cathedral church in in 1894 and the foundation stone of this present-day building was laid in 1915.
Its interior decoration was much more modern.
The organ
Here too was lots of lovely traditional stained glass windows.
In 2012, a new window was installed. In order to represent the mix of the New Zealand and Polynesian cultures, it took the image of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (a famous New Zealand singer who had actually sung at this church) and used it to represent St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music.
St. Cecilia is surrounded by native birds and animals.
Fur seals, penguins and assorted sea birds
Our last church was ironically called First Church of Otago. This was the Presbyterian one. The church was opened in 1873, only 25 years after the first settlers arrived in the area. The hill on which it stands was first lowered 40 feet. This work was done by convicts using picks and shovels. The debris was used for reclamation of the inner harbor area.
Inside was not so elongated as the others, but much more square-shaped
Note what's in the center of the flag! A kiwi bird!
The altar
The Dunedin Railway Station is actually the fourth building to serve this function. It was opened in 1906 and in its early days it handled up to 100 trains per day, making it the busiest in the country. According to George, there was a lot of controversy around the expense of building it. So, to make it feasible, first the track was built, leading to the Taieri Gorge where the stone was quarried. This was then brought back to be used to build the building. The track is still used for tourist trains today.
The station (in the back) sits next to the Law Courts building (on the right)
The gorgeous train station...
... with its impressive tower
The mosaic floor has almost 750,000 tiles of Royal Doulton porcelain.
A stained glass train!
Other than the tourist train to the gorge, the railway station isn't used as a railway station. On the ground floor is a restaurant while the upper level is now a sports hall of fame and small art gallery.
It was now time for some refreshments... so we stopped by Emerson's Brewery for a free tasting. We walked through the small office and waited in the tasting room for the girl to gather up a bunch of samples for us. We got to try their Pilsner, 1812, Bookbinder, London Porter, and Taieri George (a cute play on words on Taieri Gorge and the founder/brewer's father's name George). They were all quite enjoyable and Brian purchased a few bottles for later as well.
Emerson's Brewery
We all had our favorites... mine being the spiced Taieri George.
We swung by the giant covered stadium. The Forsyth Barr Stadium can hold 30,000 fans... regardless of the weather. Construction was completed in 2011. Important to know is that it is MUCH taller than the highest observed rugby kick of 29.4 meters (around 96 feet).
We headed up to Bracken's Overlook to get a view of the city. Thomas Bracken (1843-1898) is the author of New Zealand's National Anthem "God Defend New Zealand."
The view, with the statium to the left
The Thomas Bracken Memorial, with the complete anthem. Apparently there are five verses but most people only know the first one.
Listen to the instrumental version
God of Nations at Thy feet,
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our free land.
Guard Pacific's triple star
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand.
On the way down from the lookout, we decided to do a quick drive around the Northern Cemetery. The first burial took place in 1872. Approximately 18,000 people have been buried here since (including Thomas Bracken). The last plot was sold in 1937.
Driving through the cemetery
Larnach Tomb, built in 1881, contains the man (and his family) who built New Zealand's only castle.
This was the headstone for Charles Speight, the father of Hugh Speight (who built the current brewery).
The road was very narrow, barely enough for one car, but that was ok because it appeared to be a loop.... or at least it would have been had it not been closed off with traffic cones. We had hit a 'dead end' as it were (yes, that's an attempt at some 'grave' humor) with trees on one side and a hill on the other. Brian was fortunately able to back up enough and swing back between two rows of gravestones. We decided it was best to leave and not push our luck any further.
Just around this bend is where the road ended. Where would you turn around??
Of course, we had to visit Baldwin Street... known for being the "steepest street in the world"... with a 35% grade. While other streets around the world claim to be steeper, they are considerably shorter or not in a residential area (such as some 4-wheel drive roads). Its steepness was unintentional, but rather simply that many of the streets were laid out in the 1800's in a grid pattern with no consideration for the terrain (usually by someone in London).
We swung by the edge of the bay for some highly unusual statues, as well as being George's favorite. These six giant teeth, called the Harbour Mouth Molars, were made in 2009. The name is appropriate in that they are located at the very back end of the bay.
Looking out toward the mouth of the bay
We dropped George back off at home, then got some gas and a bulb for the car tail light. Once back home, I was treated yet again like royalty... seated next to the warm fire, being served cheese and crackers by Brian, while Judy cooked an amazing dinner of lemon and squash risotto. It was washed down with some nice Savignon blanc and a lovely dessert of fruit salad.
Again, I think this looks wonderful!
Brian left for choir practice, and Judy and I talked for the rest of the evening about nearly everything under the sun. I then took a hot shower and had my pre-warmed electric blanket waiting for me. Heavenly!
