Dunedin (1848- ) is a city in south-east New Zealand, the largest on the South Island after Christchurch. The name sounds like “Done Eden”.
Its latitude and longitude is -45.8741, 170.5035, putting it almost on the other side of the world from London.
It was once the largest city in New Zealand, back in the late 1800s when gold was discovered nearby. But now Auckland has 40 times more people and seven other cities have since passed it. Even so, it is still seen as one of the four chief cities of New Zealand – along with Auckland itself, Christchurch and Wellington.
“Dunedin” is Gaelic for Edinburgh. It was founded by the Free Church of Scotland in 1848 and was designed with Edinburgh in mind. Many of the names are the same. It is much like an Edinburgh built in the style of the late 1800s on the remains of an ancient volcano.
Like Edinburgh it is an intellectual city. It has the oldest university in New Zealand, the University of Otago. The city is strong in software, medical research, architecture, painting, art, fashion and music. It is more a university town than anything.
Of its grand old Victorian buildings the best-known is the railway station, which looks like something from a storybook.
To Australians, Americans and New Zealanders from the north, the weather seems cold and wet. But Auckland, in fact, gets more rain, though it also gets more sun. Dunedin, by comparison, is a place of cloud and mist. It is closer to Antarctica than any other city of the English-speaking world – you can even see penguins living along the sea nearby! Yet Dunedin does not get as much snow as, say, New York. It gets a heavy snow only once every two or three years.
Captain Cook came here in 1770. He named Saddle Hill and Saunders Bay. He saw penguins and seals. This later drew sealers to the area, which led to fighting with the Maori. Disease from the sealers nearly killed off the Maori.
The area was first settled in the 1100s by men who ate moas, large, walking birds taller than men. The Maori lived here as late as 1785. Then came the sealers and whalers, then the Scottish and, when gold was found, everyone came, including the Jews and the Chinese.
To the west you can see the Southern Alps. They begin to turn white with snow in March.
Nearby is a town called Middlemarch and mountains called the Remarkables.
Dunedin governs the Otago region. New Zealand is divided into regions, not states or provinces.
At the heart of the city is not a town square but the Octagon. The chief streets start here.
Dunedin has the steepest street in the world, Baldwin Street. It rises one metre for every three.
Dunedin was favoured over Auckland by British shipping till the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. It has a deep harbour at Port Chalmers through which it sends frozen meat and chocolate, among other things.
See also
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