I enjoy long walks myself. It looks like you have some good areas around you.
I live in a neighborhood bounded by a number of decent-sized parks, and I stroll around them every week or so, usually with my headphones on. One of the parks has a small public golf course. One is a cemetery. Another is affiliated with Harvard University, its land deeded to Harvard College in the 19th Century by two wealthy businessmen for the purpose of horticultural and agricultural research (one of them was a whaling magnate, which sounds a bit morbid today; the other was in shipping).
Wildlife is variable. Chipmunks, rabbits, the ubiquitous squirrels. In the Summer, I see signs in the parks warning dog owners about coyotes, but I've never seen one. The most interesting I see are usually birds. Ducks and geese enjoy the waterways, and can make quite a racket. Once in a blue moon, I'll see a swan. I'll see or hear a redtailed hawk once in a while. Mourning doves are common. In the later Summer and Fall, I see groups of 3-4 wild turkeys a lot. They're kind of a PITA. Arrogant little pricks. They'll just strut down the middle of the street or along the sidewalk, and you don't want to get too close if you're not armed. I've never tried my luck with a turkey, but they're big enough they could probably mess you up before you broke their neck. I just cross the street.
Looks like an amazing place to have nearby to go on walks through. At first glance I immediately thought I was reminded of the Wellington Botanical Gardens, but then realized this is Dunedin (where I've never been before)
To me Wellington is kinda a larger scale Dunedin. Similar vibe and terrain on the hills and harbor. It's off the tourist trail a bit as the main loop to Queenstown and West Coast is generally North if you've flown in from Christchurch. We get tourists but it's not that touristy.
That shot from the trail remind me of parts of the Milford Track. Brings back some nostalgia for me for sure.. Or actually now that I think about it.. it's sort of closer to the Abel Tasman Coastal Track.
Yeah, it's the reason I didn't end up there, there weren't any reasons to head in that direction other than maybe Stewart island, and even so there's more direct routes. From what I remember Dunedin was sort of on my radar as a nice small town out of the way of tourists, but in the end all the other things I wanted to see in the country filled in all of my available itinerary time
My journey went like this: Auckland (flight) Queenstown (bus) Te Anau (bus&boat) Milford Track (boat) Milford Track (bus) Routeburn Track (bus) Queenstown (bus) Franz Josef via Wanaka (bus) Greymouth (train) Christchurch (train) Picton I think (bus) Motueka (boat) Abel Tasman (bus) back to Picton (ferry) north island
I am def. returning to New Zealand one day and Dunedin & Stewart island are probably going to be on my hit list. I like solitude and it seems like my kind of place
Yeah I saw so many places I wanted to visit but there was only so much time. I basically had to focus on my A+ list and ignore the B list or anything below and even ignore some A-listers. I met a girl on the Routeburn Track who was headed to Stewart island after the hike.. I should have probably went with her but if I had done that I would have missed out on the glaciers and probably christchurch and oh yeah - I totally forgot about Kaikoura, which I loved for some reason.
The girl ended up saying that Stewart island was worth it, I still have her on my social media. So I def. want to go there to see what I missed out on, whenever I end up returning.
I did splurge on a scenic flight around Mt. Cook, so I got to see it from pretty epic vantage points. Ideally I was hoping to do a hike on the other side - but I couldn't figure out a way to see both the glaciers and then swing around to do the hike.. there was just no time and so the glacier & a tiny plane Mt. Cook flight ended up winning out.
I did see some hops growing from the train (or bus?), that's the closest I got to wine country.
Whenever I end up heading back, I'll def have to ask you for some tips
I just looked it up and it seems as a Canadian I can stay for 3 months at a time and need to arrive with a ticket sending me somewhere eligible when I leave. Last time I was there for 5 weeks, so we'll see what happens next time I guess. No way would my boss approve me leaving for longer than 2 months (and probably less than that), and I would def. not come for anything less than 3 weeks, since the flight is so long. But this return to NZ trip probably won't happen for another 5-10 years at least (but we'll see, can't say no to a cheap flight if the timing is right)
New Zealand has got to be one of the best countries for walking and strolling around, in terms of every corner of the country having something pretty nearby you can walk through. If I could, I would love to just drop in without a plan and visit random cities and just laze around and occasionally go on a walk. That sounds like a good time to me
Søren Kierkegaard used to walk around the lakes in Copenhagen depressed. It's nice at least to know that I'm following in someone's footsteps.