WorldTravelReynolds

Homes up on the hillside.

A beautiful resevour

Dunedin is a large college town. Much of the old houses downtown near the 2 universities have been converted for dorms and housing for the students. They are geared towards families with daycare’s onsite and playgrounds. They have students from all over the world but mainly from South Africa, South America and England. There are 15,000 students out of the 100,000 people that live here. Asian and South African nationalities also make up a large part of the population.

Mid-level housing- ranging in the $300,000 USD price range

There is a day set aside for a festival where all the students and families set up tents and cook their food from their home country and the town comes out to taste the food. I bet the food is incredible. The ship has done really well in introducing food from many different countries. It’s been great. The education sector is the main source of income here. Manufacturing was number 1 until much of the work is now sent to China.

Graffiti in New Zealand

However, things are on the upswing since gaming software companies have discovered Dunedin and are relocating here and increasing jobs. They are also in the process of building a large hospital that will take approximately 15 years to build. This will put to work over 1000 trade workers. They are looking forward to getting this started. Wine is another commodity of the country. Pinot Noir is very big and many wineries can be seen around the area. 

The bulbs for these flowers look like berries

Our last stop was at the botanical gardens. We made our way up a long steep hill to see the different birds. We only had an hour, so we didn’t get to spend too much time here since the walk took us a little while. They have cockatiels, parrots and corellas. One was trying to dig his way out of prison while talking up a storm! He would dig a little and then say “hello”. It was cute.

A boys school.

The flowers here were beautiful as well. Rhododendrons and roses are all over the place! We had a short self tour today and when we got back to the cabin we had to take a nap. The rough rides cause lack of sleep and getting up earlier than we are accustomed to doesn’t help.

The outside train boarding area.

We’ll get back on track once the Captain starts setting our time back to the time we lost coming over.