Dunedin

Rain arrived in Dunedin but it didn't dampen our spirits as we briskly walked through the dreary Monday morning in search of street art. We had heard that the the city had endorsed a number of pieces on its walls, which were marked as dots on our map. We found most easily enough and the colour, detail and scale were brilliant. This shouldn't be confused with graffiti tagging, which is ugly and lacks skill. Instead what we witnessed clearly requires significant skill and artistic talent. We think cities should endorse more of this quality work to bring its streets to life.

After this we headed over to the Otago museum where items from Sir Edmund Hilary's 1953 Everest Expedition were on display. It was an incredible feat, even more so by the fact that it was the 9th British attempt and Hilary was not part of the first team to attempt the summit the morning he and his colleague Tenzig Norgay succeeded. Such was Hilary's admiration for the Sherpas that assisted him in his mission that he spent significant time and money supporting Nepalese communities in the subsequent decades.

At the very top of the museum we found the 'Animals' Attic', where a cornucopia of Victorian-era taxidermy was displayed. Mammals and birds posed aggressively next to cases of colourful butterflies and insects whilst rows of skulls mingled with jarred specimens. It read like a Victorian house of nature's horrors, which likely disgusted and fascinated its audiences at the time in equal measure. To us with modern sensibilities of animal welfare the array of stuffed death was somewhat unsettling but still fascinating.

In the evening Pierrick and Graciela (who we sky-dived with in Franz Josef) joined us in Dunedin to travel onward to Invercargill tomorrow. We caught up on each other's news as we ate freshly made salmon and tuna sushi rolls at a nearby cafe. Afterwards we played pool in the subdued lighting of the pool hall under our hostel. Our time in Dunedin was coming to a close and our journey around New Zealand was about to restart.Read more