Gardens and Architecture

I've spent most of the last few days helping my friends on their taco cart, which has been a great deal of fun. But I've mostly been seeing the inside of the cart or various wholesalers and suppliers. I have been out on a few walks with the dogs, admiring Kiwi gardens and enjoying a place where everything is GREEN.

Calla lilies are essentially a weed here. Those flowers? They're as big as my hand.

Yes, there are a lot of sheep.

The architecture in town is pretty stunning. There's a lot of Victorian and Edwardian design - I'm told it looks a lot like England would if England hadn't been bombed out in the Blitz. The building in the back is a school.

(The rest of these pictures are from my trip here in January, with a less impressive camera.) The local university:

The Fortune Theatre, Dunedin's local professional house.

The court house.

The train station - in parts, since it was too big to fit into the cell phone camera...

There were also several new street art installations since I was last here. I only have a picture of this one, sadly, which I found in an alley while wandering around.

I did hike up the hill to Ovleston house, a stunning old mansion on the top of a hill that was built in 1904. Only one family ever lived in it, and they never really modernized it. When the last surviving family member died without an heir in 1966, she gifted the house and all of the furniture and artwork to the city of Dunedin. I wasn't able to take pictures inside, but it was stunning. Check it out here: http://www.olveston.co.nz 

I was able to take pictures in the gardens.

The columbine made me very happy!

I leave on Sunday for Christchurch, where I will pick up a car rental and take a trip up the coast, stopping in a few places before taking the ferry across to Wellington to start my live there!