Daily Photo: Exploring Dunedin’s Historic Centre

One of the pleasures of wandering around Dunedin is that you don’t have to go far to find a street that looks as though it has a few stories tucked away behind its windows. You can set off with no particular destination in mind, which is often the best way to explore a city, and find yourself stopping every few metres to look at something you have probably walked past dozens of times before.

This street has a pleasing collection of old shopfronts, ornate upper-storey windows and buildings that seem to have been constructed in an era when architects were expected to put a little effort into things. There is a certain confidence about these older commercial buildings. They were built to be noticed, and some have been doing an admirable job of it for well over a century.

The street itself draws the eye towards the distance, where the buildings gradually close in around the road. It is the sort of view that encourages you to keep walking, if only to discover what lies around the next corner. Of course, there is always the possibility that you will find nothing particularly exciting, but that is part of the arrangement. Wandering without a plan does rather depend on being prepared to accept the occasional disappointment.