Woodhaugh Walkways

A series of walkways run along the banks of the Leith River and through Woodhaugh Gardens. We entered the path at the back of the Woodhaugh NZMCA Park where we were staying—we could see people walking along the path from the window of our rig and decided to explore.

Heading in one direction, we walked along the edge of a stream.

Along the way, we passed the site of the former Woodhaugh Quarry, which operated until 1949. Also a sign mentions a deserted explosives store—I suspect this is it.

Having seen numerous people exercising their dogs off lead on this walkway, we let Lucy run free. However, at one point we came across another entrance to the walkway, where a sign advised us that dogs should be on leads. There was a $300 fine for ignoring this! Sorry, Lucy . . . back on the lead.

This is the entrance to a motor camp and near where we saw the warning about dogs off leads.

Steep cliffs run along both sides of the river in places.

Eventually, we could go no further.

The next day, we decided to walk in the other direction. This tree is eking out an existence on the side of a cliff. Just "hanging in there"!

The track comes out of the trees onto Woodhaugh Road where we crossed over the bridge by the Hotel and, walking down steps on the other side, reconnected with the walkway. Looking back . . .

This time we entered Woodhaugh Gardens. The walkways were not signposted and wove through some of the tallest trees in New Zealand. The area was just magical.

While walking through the Gardens, we came across a children’s playground, and further around near the road was a pond; seagulls were on the grass and several fat ducks of various types.

I’m certain we have not fully explored the walkways. There are so many different paths and magnificent trees.

This was the NZMCA Park, with the entrance to the walkway hidden directly behind where we were parked.

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Dunedin Highlights

We only spent a couple of days in Dunedin, so our sightseeing in this lovely city was limited to three spots.
Number One: This is Baldwin Street. From this perspective, it appears reasonably innocuous.

However, Baldwin Street is the steepest street in the world.

In case you cannot read this, it says that over the 161.2 metre length of the top section it climbs a vertical height of 47.22 metres, which is an average gradient of 1 in 3.41. On its steepest section, the gradient is 1 in 2.86.

Dave wanted to drive to the top . . . of course!

So, up we went. At the top of the no exit street there is a seat with beautiful artwork on it and a water fountain. Probably for the benefit of those people who walked climbed up from the bottom. I walked down a little way to take more photos. Getting back up to the car I had a taste of what it would be like to walk up—and it wasn't even the steepest part!

It's not easy to give you a clear idea of just how steep this is.

Looking down the steepest part.

From here, the steepest section dips down out of sight.

Our second tourist spot was the Signal Hill Lookout. This monument at the lookout was constructed in 1940 to commemorate the first European settlement of New Zealand in 1840.

The view from the top.

This panorama carries on around to the right of the top picture.

Number Three: St Kilda Beach. We wanted to go to Tunnel Beach as I'd heard it was really beautiful, but when we arrived at the car park above the beach, we found dogs were not allowed on the track. It was a one-hour round trip to walk down to the beach—too long to leave Lucy in the car. So sadly, we decided to leave that one for another day. Travelling along the coast, we came to St Kilda beach. What a beautiful surf beach. There were several surfers in the water and plenty of people around, even though it was a week day.

We were quite high up, and it wasn't easy to see how to get down to the beach. Neither of us were keen to scramble down the bank.

Then, near the Surf Club, we found the access.

A girl we spoke to at Signal Hill Lookout had told us that all Dunedin beaches were beautiful. If they are all like this one, she was telling the truth! This beach was popular, and even though it wasn't "crowded", it had more people on it than most of the beaches we've been on in the past few months. Generally, we are spoilt enough to have the beach mostly to ourselves. Regardless, it was beautiful.

I took a couple of photos while Dave was in the Hunting & Fishing shop.

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Evansdale Cheese

Evansdale Cheese started in 1978, the first small cheesemaking factory in New Zealand. It's 100% NZ owned and operated—a family business.

We found it at Hawksbury Village, just south of Waikouaiti and north of Dunedin.

In addition to the shop, where you can buy cheeses and some delicious accompaniments (like Fig Compote), they have a small area set aside to describe the cheese-making process . . .

. . . complete with large photos and signs, explaining how cheese is made.

On one wall in the shop area are posters like this one, describing the various cheeses you can buy. Apparently, they produce 20-30 different varieties, but we didn't see that many today.

Nevertheless, we found some to take home with us. The ones we've tasted so far are delicious, and the Fig Compote . . . Yummmm!!

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