Understand
Dunedin is known as the Edinburgh of the South and is proud of its Scots heritage. It has as its heart a statue of the poet Robbie Burns, and many of its streets carry the same name as streets in Edinburgh. It was built in a time before the car was king, when ships and railways moved people around. It is built in a natural harbour on a relatively small area of flat land. It is surrounded by steep hillsides. Some of its streets are steep: Baldwin Street is claimed as being the steepest street in the world, a claim which is celebrated during the annual chocolate festival by rolling 15,000+ jaffas down it. It does get cold: many of the streets are iced over in winter, and every two or three years, the city gets a snowfall.
Dunedin's University of Otago, established in 1871, is the oldest university in New Zealand. It is the South Island's second largest employer, and by far the biggest contributor to the Dunedin economy. 02:25, 14 April 2007 (EDT) Dunedin is a University Town rather than just a town with a university. The students make up over a tenth of the population. A consequence of this is that the city is significantly quieter during the university summer holiday period (approx November to February).
Dunedinites (the Dunedin people) are generally friendly, noticeably more friendly than in the bigger cities of NZ (& the bigger cities anywhere else in the world).
Eat
For the desperate,
McDonalds is at 232 George Street, where an internet cafe is attached -- but I wouldn't go there. George Street is just
littered with all kinds of restaurants, starting about two blocks north of TheOctagon (in the centre of Dunedin). There are also a few interesting places on Albany Street, which runs across the south of the UniversityOfOtago.
They're used to students and other tightwads, too. The wiki for the
LCA2006 Linux conference hosts some photos of them, which will eventually be pushed into
a local (Dunedin) wiki.
BudgetBeing NZ, if you want Fush and Chups, you go to a Chinese restaurant for them. Don't know why, but it works. The prices are pretty good, although the fish servings are typically only about 1/2 to 2/3 of the size of the Australian counterpart.
One interesting local specialty is
kumara chips, made with a local sweet-potato variant and typically priced at about double the cost of potato chips. Very tasty!
The kiwis are also good at making icecream, and many places (including little delis and general stores at places like MacAndrew Bay) sell cones for fairly reasonable prices (e.g. NZD$1.90 for a double cone).
The Satay Noodle house on Hanover Street (Opposite the Hannah's Meridian entrance) has good Cambodian and Thai food at cheap prices ~$7, Be warned they don't have EFTPOS but there's a ATM across the road.
For the freshest local organic produce, including fruit, vegetables, eggs, bread, cheese, etc it's a good idea to check out the Farmer's Market. It's on...
