“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.” -Sir Edmund Hillary, First Man to Summit Everest (and a New Zealander)

While research tells me that Edmund Hillary was born and raised in Auckland, I would bet he trained to summit Everest by walking the streets of Dunedin.  The hills here are killers, and Hogwartz is on a steep one for sure.  By the time I leave this city, I’m going to be in amazing shape.

View of Speights brewery at the bottom of the steps

            In fact, Dunedin has (literally) the world’s steepest hill on Baldwin Street.  And what do the kiwis do with this hill I ask you?  Why race giant candy down it to raise $50,000 for charity of course!  The Jaffa Race happens once a year and you can buy a ticket for $1.  The number on your ticket is then taped onto a marble-sized Jaffa candy (kind of like a round M&M or giant Sixlet).  25,000 of these babies are released at the top of the hill and the first 5 down win the grand prizes: $1000 grocery and/or gas gift certificates.  Now I imagined the candies rambling peacefully down the hill while children squeeled with delight.  However it was quite different. It began with a rumble and the next thing I knew there were Jaffas going freakin’ everywhere.  The race lasted only 30 seconds but by the time they had passed my hair was blown straight back and there was a trail of fire left on the street.  Awesome.

Side view of Baldwin Street

They have the best view in the house.

This will give you and idea of how steep the street is.

The filmographer

It was not, in fact, the winning ticket.

Here they come!  Click this picture to enlarge and check out the people shielding their faces.

...and there they go!

Fallen Jaffa candies.  Yes, kids were eating these.

I wish I had jaffa candy sweeper on my resume!

                On the way home, we took a detour through the city’s botanic gardens.  Even though it’s winter, they were still beautiful.  They also had a large collection of birds (in cages; boo, but still beautiful).  However, our favorite ones were in the wild.  They’re called kereru and look just like pigeons only they weigh about 50 lbs and when they hop from branch to branch the tree looks like it’s in pain.

Golden pheasant

Azaleas

The beloved kereru

                    Our last stop was to The Otago Museum.  We only spent about an hour or so there, but I really dug it and want to go back when I have more time.  They had a lot of natural history exhibits, 2 great photography exhibits, and a whole section about human history that included an 1877 cast made of a Japanese bound foot… ewww.

These things still swim in Australasian waters... creepy.

A child jumping on Brad.

Sir Edmund Hillary's mug when he was on Everest

You can add your own caption to this.

            The more time I spend in the city, the more I like it.  All of these cool attractions with green, rolling hills in the background is an awesome balance of urban and rural.  Now I just need to balance spending all of this money with getting a job… wish me luck!