Dunedin: five nights out with Robbie Burns

Well, wee beasties, I have left the very English city of Christchurch and am now in the Edinburgh of the south - Dunedin. I arrived early this afternoon and when I asked the airport shuttle driver to take me to "The Brothers" he said "Oh, nice one. You're gonna like that." And although I have given up the space of my cottage in Christchurch it is nice to be in a small hotel in order to talk to someone except for cats. I have, so far, moved on to dogs and have befriended the resident black Labrador as well as have had a chat with Rod, the owner, over a glass of wine in the lounge. (I have yet to meet the resident black cat, Molly.)

The hotel is quite nice. It used to be the residence of the Christian Brothers (yes, "those" brothers but apparently they didn't get up to the same hijinx here in Dunedin) and Rod showed me some photos of the renovations and said that when they bought the place it was something out of "Father Ted". There is a little lounge area outside of my room where there is a couch and some chairs so I can relax there if I want -- in the pre-renovation photos I see that is where the brothers had their billiards table! I guess they probably had to sink balls in the order of the cross... no doubt the black ball was called the Holy Ghost.

But here is the view from my room overlooking the cathedral next door as well as from the terrace out over the harbour...



As you can probably tell from the great views, this hotel is up on a hill so I am going to get some good exercise in this town!

I arrived early afternoon so walked (down) to the Octagon (the main area) about five minutes away. Lots of shops and cafes. I had a late lunch (seared beef salad) on the patio of one cafe and watched them setting up the stage for tomorrow night's New Years Eve festivities.

I headed back (up) to the hotel stopping at the local "bottle shop". The guy in the shop recommended a central Otago region "Rabbit Ranch" pinot noir.

Going to relax tonight and review all my info on Dunedin to decide what to do over the next few days. Rod gave me some tips as well. The hotel has a laptop that can be used by guests which I thought would be great as I wouldn't have to walk (down) to Starbucks to log in to paid wireless. But as luck would have it I can log in to someone's unlocked wireless network from my computer in my room. Very happy about that. So i can sit on my lovely terrace and admire my lovely view. 9:11 pm here and still completely bright out.

I like the feel of Dunedin so far. It has a nice casual feel to it. Tomorrow will explore some more as well as check out the New Year's Eve concert. The waiter at the cafe I was at for lunch did describe it as "all-out carnage" but we shall see!