Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Twilight Over Dunedin

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Twilight over Dunedin

I came to the edge of the harbour and looked out at the soft glow of twilight that took over the evening sky. The sun, having recently disappeared below the horizon, had left a brilliant gradient of glowing oranges, shimmering yellow’s, delicate pinks and fresh blue’s hovering in the distant skyline. As I watched the sun drop away, a deep, rich red glow glistened from the rooftops of the houses that could be seen across harbour on the Otago Peninsula. While I gazed at the changing twilight, the drifting evening tide created a smooth, warm glow that reflected the intense fading light.

Creativity, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

The Dunedin Law Courts 

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The gathering twilight above the Dunedin Law Courts 

A hushed calm took over the evening sky. As the sun dropped below the city skyline, a hypnotic dance of colour came forth, turning nearby buildings into silhouettes. Across the street, only the gothic style, Scottish baronial architecture was visible in the fading light. As I walked, the evening traffic navigated their way through the city streets as day transitioned into night. In the absences of the city street lights that were yet to take hold, shadows took hold as the evening hues started to fade from sight, giving way to the imminent night.

Aotearoa, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Travel, Wild Horses

The Stillness of Dusk on the Pineapple Track

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The stillness of dusk on the Pineapple Track.

In the stillness of dusk, the world seemed to pause as the sun slipped below the horizon, leaving behind a mesmerising hue of deep blue and fiery orange. The sky, vast, unyielding and endless with the last sunlight stretching upwards. Below, silhouetted against the glow, plants swayed gently, their outlines adding a ruggedness to the serenity. Far off in the distance, tiny pinpricks of light hinted at civilization. But here, above the hills of Dunedin, quiet, solemn, and captivating nature was in command.

Beach Life, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

The Hydro On The Esplanade.

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The Hydro on the esplanade.

It was early evening and I had been wandering for some time. Eventually, I came to the Esplanade and strolled along the seafront, the buildings bathed in the soft glow of street lights, their warm light spreading halos across the deepening blue sky. The shark bell stood slightly imposing, sentinel over the promenade, a poignant reminder of a time when shark attacks seemed an altogether common occurrence in a bygone time. Nestled into the hillside beyond, the suburb of St Clair sparkled faintly in the background, adding a cozy touch to the urban serenity. It was one of those evenings where time seemed to slow in a silent sort of way.

Aotearoa, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Travel, Wild Horses

Olveston Historic Home

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The billiard room at Olveston

It’s only in recent years I’ve grown to love the 120 year old stately home of Olveston. Like so many locals, for years I both ignored it and simply forgot it was there. However, last year I decided to reconnect with the place and went on a tour of the grand house. When construction of the house was completed in 1907, the four storey building featured reception rooms, a library, a kitchen, downstairs guest rooms, a galleried hall rising from the ground and to the upper floors which also served as a ballroom. There was a billiard room, a card room, numerous bedrooms, with the top floor being servants’ quarters and the basement serving as a large laundry.

However, the entire time I was there, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why on earth the billiard room had been placed on the second floor. This seemed a little strange to me. If for no other reason than it seemed completely impractical. If we speculate for a moment that on a lovely Dunedin evening, when his family were entertaining guests with a fine meal with music, all the activities would be taking place on the ground floor. After a while, if for example the men wanted to retire to a separate room for brandy, billiards and cigars as was the custom, they would have then needed to head upstairs to the billiard and card room which is located right beside the bedrooms. Keeping this in mind, doesn’t the proximity of the billiard room to the main bedrooms seem a little close? Personally, and this is just me, I would have thought it would have been much more practical to have the billiard and card room on the ground floor of the house and as far away from the bedrooms as possible. At the very least this would have avoided the need to place extremely large steel girders beneath the floorboards to take the weight of the Olympic size billiard table which weighed over an impressive two tonnes. But I’m not an architect, so what would I know! 

Beach, Beach Life, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Sunrise Over Tomahawk Beach

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Sunrise over Tomahawk Beach

Recently, there have been some extremely lovely sunrises here in Dunedin. While I don’t know the exact science behind what causes a colourful sunrise, I believe it’s all to do with light beams coming into the earth’s atmosphere and hitting molecules. Then, something happens with blue lightwaves becoming shorter while red, orange and yellow lightwaves become longer while moving through the atmosphere. Of course, I could always be completely wrong!

Creativity, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Dawn In Suburbia

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Dawn on Tomahawk Road

There’s a moment in the early hours of the day, that is quite delightful. It’s before the sunrises and light floods the sky in the hour before dawn. As the darkness of night lifts and surrounding objects start to take shape, when the blue hour takes hold, a silent hush fills the new day. It’s quite a magical time in a nothing much is happening sort of way.

Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Ross Creek in Dunedin

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Ross Creek in Dunedin

The other day I posted a photo I took of a spider web with raindrops in Ross Creek. Well, this is the photo I was working on directly before I spotted that spider web. It’s taken with one of my less-used wide angle lenses that doesn’t get taken out and about as much as it used to. To give you an idea of how quickly the water was moving, this image was taken at 0.5 seconds. That really isn’t all that long for a water image where you want to show movement which means the water was moving through at a pretty quick clip!

Aotearoa, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Spring, Travel, Wild Horses

Spring In The Octagon

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Spring in the Octagon

Doesn’t the Octagon in Dunedin look lovely on a bright spring day? Yet, not long after it was first laid out in 1846, the site sat largely derelict for a long time. During that period the large Bell Hill separated the city to the north and south of the Octagon. It wasn’t until Bell Hill was substantially excavated that the two major early settlements to the north and south of the Octagon were linked that the area rose to prominence as the city’s central area.

Creativity, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Street Art On Vogel Street

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Street Art by @hugovandorsser and Screaming Rooster Studio

For something different I wanted to see if I could capture a long exposure image during the day time. I made my way down to Vogel Street here in Dunedin and set up my gear under the overbridge that runs through former Jetty Street. Under the bridge, a painting which is part of the Dunedin Street Art trail by @hugovandorsser and Screaming Rooster Studio made a good backdrop as I waited for slow moving cars to pass by.

Creativity, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Ross Creek Reservoir (Lower)

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Spider web with raindrops at Ross Creek

The other week when we had all that rain, I went out in search of photos involving water. However, instead of walking the streets of South Dunedin and photographing houses that were flooding, I headed for some of the Dunedin bushwalks. One of those that I spent some time in was in and around Ross Creek from the Leith Valley entrance. In this area of the bush several small rivers run through the valley before connecting up with the Waters of Leith. I arrived to find the usually sedate stream had become inundated with water after nearly three days of heavy rain. It was while I was photographing one of the many bends and drops in the stream that I noticed a nearby spider web that was catching some of the rain drops that were falling through the canopy.

Creativity, Ōtepoti, Spring, Wild Horses

Daybreak In The Suburbs

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Corner of Tomahawk and Oakland Street (Out of the morning chaos comes bliss)

I emerged from my doorstep into the early morning light of a new day. Being spring, dawn was starting to break significantly earlier than it had a month ago yet, the mornings were still cold enough for heavy layers of dew to develop overnight. Having not been awake long enough to claim I was functioning to any high degree of cognitive skill, I headed off into the breaking dawn trying to work out what the heck I was doing up at such an hour, when I was actually on holiday. Then, I reminded myself. The light is always more interesting at this time of the morning. Exactly what I was looking for, I wasn’t too sure. So, I set up my tripod at a random intersection and waited for cars to drive past, creating a lovely long exposure effect. It was while I was waiting on one of these 25 second exposure shots that I decided I really was looking forward to a cup of coffee.  

Beach Life, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

One Thousand

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First light over Tomahawk Beack in Dunedin

Today marks a significant milestone for my daily photoblog from a Small City which I’m delighted to share with you. This is my one thousandths consecutive daily post. That’s one thousand days without missing a single day. One thousand days where at 6am (mostly) a different photo has been posted. When people ask what my blog from a Small City is about, my response is that it’s a photoblog about discovering small towns, forgotten points of interest and the curiosities of my island home. It’s about interesting and amusing stories told through words and images about life in Aotearoa. 

In fact, when I started my purpose was to improve my photography through becoming a better writer. After all, it’s one thing to be able to take a photograph, it’s a completely different skill to be able to use words to create an ongoing narrative. I actually did a very rough calculation along with 1000 unique photos, I’ve written over 150,000 words! 

So, to those people who keep coming back, thank you very much for sharing my creative joy and please share it among your friends. I sincerely hope you keep returning because I very much enjoy the creative challenge. It’s kind of like having 5 minutes of escapism every single day. Or to put it another way, 300 seconds escaping from reality or everyday matters.

Creativity, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Travel, Wild Horses

Stain-glass Window At Dunedin Railway Station

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Stain-glass window at Dunedin Railway Station

Aren’t stain-glass windows amazing? To think, we can thank both the Romans and Egyptians for   becoming experts at creating objects made from coloured glass. While looking at this one in Dunedin at the Railway Station, I began to speculate about the person who had the idea of making a window out of it. I like to think their thought process went something like: ‘You know what, if we put that see-through coloured stuff in that empty space where the wind comes through, we might really have something.’ I wonder if they knew it would catch-on as much as it has!

Aotearoa, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Spring, Wild Horses

Spring Tulips In Dunedin

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Tulips at First Church

Before all that rain fell, the weather in Dunedin was actually rather fine, The preceding days had been warm, sunny and perfect for enjoying the delights of spring. For these reasons, and others that I can’t remember, I found my way into the central city in search of signs of spring. Upon arrival at the historic First Church, I discovered a delightfully elegant flower bed of tulips lining the entrance to the grand building.

Dunedin, Observation, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Now For Something Highly Unusual

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Ross Creek during torrential rain on Friday morning.

Water of Leith near George Street on Friday morning.

Here’s a statistic for you, yesterday Dunedin had its wettest day in over a century. Three times the usual rainfall expected in October fell in the city in just 48 hours causing 38 road closures. It seems that the Metservice got it spot on with their heavy rain warnings earlier in the week. That really was a significant amount of rain that fell and was definitely a highly unusual event. Now, remind me again what sunshine looks like?

Aotearoa, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Spring, Wild Horses

Red Heavy Rain Warning Issued For Otago

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Continued heavy rain creates flooding in Dunedin – Friday, 4th October, 2024
The Leith after torrential rain in Dunedin – Thursday, 3rd October, 2024

The Water of Leith in flood mode.

Friday 4:40pm – Time to review! Here in Dunedin it started raining early yesterday morning and now some 30 hours later it’s still going! State Highways are closed to the north of the city, to the south of the city, many communities are now cut off and many local suburbs are in flood mode. A state of emergency is in place in Dunedin and Clutha while there is heavy flooding in Waikouaiti and Palmerston is completely cut off. All over the region there are landslides and rivers bursting their banks. Just another spring day in Dunedin.

Water of Leith after torrential rain

Friday 6am – So a red alert heavy rain warning with 120 to 150 mm of rain was released. Then warnings from the Metservice, travel warnings from Civil Defence, snow in the Lindis Pass, rising river levels, surface flooding, land slips, sandbags being filled and warnings of flooding in low lying areas.

Creativity, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Portobello

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Portobello Post Office

I went for a drive on the Otago Peninsula, looking for boats. Dinghies to be exact. I had an idea for an image that involved an old dinghy gently drifting on the tide. However, I quickly came across two problems. Firstly, it was far too windy for anything to be simply ‘drifting’ and secondly, I couldn’t find a dingy. So, to overcome these problems I stopped in the peninsula settlement of Portobello and photographed the former post office and general store building instead. If I’m being honest, I’m not entirely convinced it’s not a private residence, meaning I was photographing someone’s home! But, since the original building dates back to at least 1867, I’d like to think the owners would be lenient.

Beach Life, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

The Esplanade Restaurant

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The Esplanade Restaurant

For something different I set myself a challenge. So, I went down to the Esplanade at St Clair, picked a spot and let the world pass me by. The challenge was to see what photos I could create while staying as close as possible to a single spot. This is the entrance to the well known local Italian beachfront Pizza Restaurant & Bar ‘The Esplanade.’ It advertises itself as a piece of Italy perched on the New Zealand beachfront in St Clair, Dunedin.

Aotearoa, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Travel, Wild Horses

Speight’s Brewery on Rattray Street

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Morning light hits Speight’s Brewery

The historic Speight’s Brewery on Rattray Street, Central Dunedin is about to get a lot busier. The usual summer cruise ship season is due to get underway next month and Speight’s Brewery is always a popular location. Developed in 1876 when James Speight, while feeling a little thirsty, decided to see what would happen if he mixed a few malt and hops together. He then set-up a brewery with friends Charles Greenslade and William Dawson on Dunedin’s Rattray Street where it has been based ever since.

Dunedin, Otago Harbour, Otago Peninsula, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Peggy’s Hill

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Otago Peninsula and Harbour Cone from Peggy’s Hill

It’s not hard to see why William Larnarch chose this spot to build his grand house and estate in 1871. The story goes that while out riding with his son, William Larnach came across a location near Peggy’s Hill which he immediately loved. After purchasing the land and much of the surrounding area, he then employed the well known architect Robert Lawson to complete the design. The site was then cleared and levelled, allowing construction to begin in 1871.

Dunedin, Otago Peninsula, Ōtepoti, The Art of John Caswell, Wild Horses

Farm Shed with Hay Bales

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Farm Shed with Hay Bales

I came across this hayshed near Cape Saunders. After spending some time studying the scene, I started looking at the composition in the form of lines, squares, rectangles, circles and cylinders. It’s always interesting to see how the eye can be moved around inside the frame with the arrangement of elements that suggest habitation and time which I’ve always enjoyed. In this case, a corrugated metal shed on the right side and a row of wrapped hay bales in front of it is backdropped by a grassy field enclosed by a rustic fence.

Dunedin, Otago Peninsula, Ōtepoti, The Art of John Caswell, Wild Horses

Chimney Stack At Hereweka

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Chimney Stack at Hereweka

While I enjoy walking through cities and towns transcribing what I see in words or images, I also enjoy getting out to more remote locations. Every so often I find myself drawn to creating photos that are more of a long stare than a quick glance. There are element’s of remoteness, past habitation, time, the passing of time and timelessness that I find myself coming back to again and again. It might be a fence line covered in mist, an old metal shed, an abandoned house or a stone wall on a rolling hill but they all hold deep and compelling meaning to me. In this case an old chimney stack on the former farmstead owned by William Larnach in the 1870’s made an interesting subject. In this image the challenge was ensuring the sunburst coming through the trees didn’t dominate the whole scene.

Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Spring, Wild Horses

Tulips In Spring

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Spring tulips in Queens Gardens

From the Dunedin Railway Station I walked the short distance to Queens Gardens. Situated on reclaimed land and developed in the late 19th Century, the gardens were officially named Victoria Gardens in 1904 but that name quickly developed into “The Queen’s Gardens”. The gardens have several notable statues including Queen Victoria, Donald M. Stuart, the Dunedin Cenotaph and the Dunedin Millennium Cross. Located directly in front of the cross is a lovely triangular shaped garden that on this occasion featured a lovely bed of tulips in the full joys of spring. It was this line of tulips nestled in front of the Celtic Cross that I had come to photograph.

Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Spring, Wild Horses

The Equinox

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Spring at Dunedin Railway Station

Let’s get scientific for a moment. There are two days every year when night and day are the same length. These are called the equinox or a solar equinox. That is to say that the sun appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of it. Here in New Zealand the autumn equinox happens in March (March 20 this year) and the spring equinox happens in September (September 23 this year). Now, for those in the Northern Hemisphere they will obviously be reversed. What all this means is that for us folk who live in the Southern Hemisphere the daylight hours are now longer than the night time hours and for those that live in the Northern Hemisphere, the nighttime hours become longer than the daylight hours. So, while all the nations north of the equator are heading into the autumn and winter months, here in Aotearoa we are dusting off speedos, bikinis and bringing out the jandals because summer is just around the corner. 

To celebrate the equinox, the official start of spring and all the glorious colour that is returning to this part of the world, I risked a heavy dose of hay fever and went in search of some spring blossom.

Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

Jetty Street Overbridge

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Jetty Street Overbridge

It’s not often you can literally see the thinking of town planners in action, and that’s what I love about Dunedin’s Jetty Street overbridge. Opened in 1977 after the old bridge made of Port Chalmers bluestone was decommissioned, it is a wonderful example of urban development in its simplest form. By the 1970’s, the old bridge built between 1883 and 1886 for horses and carts was no longer fit for purpose and a new bridge was required. These days, if you stand below the bridge on Jetty Street, you can literally see their thinking of just squeezing it directly between two buildings. The upside of this grand design is that while driving over the bridge you can look into office windows on the second floor. 

Creativity, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Wild Horses

The Terminus Hotel

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The Railway Central Terminus Hotel

The next day the clouds had rolled in, the temperature had dropped and heavy rain had lashed the city from sometime the previous evening. I spent a lazy day hunkering inside where it was warm, however by mid afternoon I was ready for some fresh air. With the rain showing no sign of easing, I tucked myself into a jacket and headed out into the city streets looking for puddles. Upon arriving at Queens Gardens, I spotted the former “Railway Central Terminus Hotel” reflecting in a rather large puddle near a set of traffic lights on Cumberland Street. Built in 1880 and described at the time as a conspicuous object that was considered an important addition to the city’s hotel accommodation, it was recently redeveloped into New York style apartments. Now, the building is considered an important part of the city’s warehouse precinct.

Aotearoa, Otago Harbour, Ōtepoti, Travel, Wild Horses

Port Chalmers

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Carey’s Bay Towards Aramoana 

As I arrived in Waitati, a settlement just north of Dunedin, I decided to detour off the main highway. Instead, I turned onto Mount Cargill Road, which used to be the main route north from Dunedin until the Dunedin–Waitati Highway (SH 1) was opened in 1957. After around 4 kilometres, I made the decision to take another diversion and ventured off Mount Cargill Road and onto Blueskin Road, eventually arriving at the harbour village of Port Chalmers and later on Dunedin.

Aotearoa, Dunedin, Observation, Ōtepoti, Travel, Wild Horses

Breakfast At Maggies

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Maggie’s Tearoom – Bar – Arcade

While I pondered what to do for the rest of the day, I called into a local cafe called Maggies. Needing coffee and breakfast after taking photos on the harbour, I ordered and pushed my way into a booth to consider my options. The place was already reasonably busy with the morning work crowd, so I happily watched people rush around for a while as I fueled myself for the day. As I finished off the last pieces of bacon in front of me, while scrolling through my phone, I found a few notes I’d forgotten about. One of which said, Naseby – curling. Not recalling where or when I wrote this, or even many of the details as to why I wanted to visit the small town, I flicked my phone over to google maps. A search and a few seconds later, I was informed that the drive would take around 1 hour 45 minutes at a distance of almost 150 kilometres. Not having anything else planned for the day, ‘well why not’ I thought to myself. So with that, I left the busy cafe, settled into my car and headed for the small town of Naseby.

Aotearoa, Dunedin, Ōtepoti, Travel, Wild Horses

Sunrise Over The Otago Peninsula

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Sunrise over Otago Peninsula

I arose early the next day to find the world had returned to where it should be. In the preceding twenty fours the Universe had disappeared into a world of mist and fog but now, in the light of a new day, balance had been restored. To celebrate this unexpected turn of events, I wasted not a second longer and completing my morning ablutions in record time, I was out the door to enjoy every second the fresh, morning air. Having not been able to see the harbour the day before, today it was transformed into a near perfect mirror reflection of itself. I arrived to find the sun starting to peek its way over the distant horizon as the sky changed to a tranquil mix of yellow, orange and blue contrasted by the silent silhouette of the suburbs of the Otago Peninsula. It was still early and here I was with nothing much to do and so little time to do it in. I looked at my watch, coffee was needed and maybe a little bacon to get me going for the day. I was about to head off in search of breakfast when I thought to myself, what am I going to do with the day? It was just after 8am and I had already accomplished everything I had wanted to do for the day.