Saturday 21st February
We woke up to more rain and it had been raining all night. The sluggish stream in the Botanic Garden, that we can see from our window, has become quite a fast flowing torrent.


We drove out to the Otago Peninsula and watched the birds for a little while but it was much too grey and misty to stay for long.
http://www.otago-peninsula.co.nz/

We returned to town to look around the Otago Settlers Museum. It deals with the settlement of the area from 1860 onwards. Dunedin was the old Scottish name for Edinburgh. Much of the museum is about transport with other sections on mining (gold and coal), Maouri history, Chinese and Scottish immigration. One exhibit is a full sized replica of part of a passenger deck from an immigration vessel. It was dark, stuffy and very cramped with sound effects and noises adding to the atmosphere.
http://www.otago.settlers.museum/

Part of the museum is in the original art-deco bus station.

We walked to the centre of town and came across the annual Dunedin Pipe Band Competition, which takes place over the weekend. There were seventeen pipe bands here marching and playing in the city centre square despite the rain. We enjoyed a good dry view through a cafe window and talked to some of the competitors.

All the hotels in Dunedin are full tonight because parents stay for the weekend when their children begin university.