Day Sixty Five Wharf

 I took the opportunity of a quiet Sunday morning to walk the streets around the wharf which is usually a busy industrial area of Dunedin during the week.  I walked 19 streets today.

791. Wharf Street
792. Kitchener Street
793. French Street
794. Roberts Street
795. Buller Street
796. White Street
797. Birch Street
798. Fryatt Street
799. Fish Street
800. Tewsley Street
801. Cresswell Street
802. Devon Street
803. Jutland Street
804. Akaroa Street
805. Thomas Burns Street
806. Mason Street 
807. Ward Street Extension
808. Fairley Street
809. Willis Street

 

 The area around the Wharf is reclaimed land so it is flat and is where most of the industrial businesses are.  It is also where some of the ships into the harbour arrive and as a result is where the Customs House was built. Now most of the shipping comes into Port Chalmers and the Customs House has been turned into a restaurant/cafe.

I walked along the Customs House Quay during my walk which is a wonderful area on a calm day to see the harbour from.  Over the years there have been plans to develop this area further but nothing has ever been done.

 

The views of the harbour from the Customs House Quay are beautiful.  It can often have a cold wind but today it was calm with no wind and a lovely place to be. 

This is also an area that is a popular cycle route.  The area around the harbour has a well developed cycle pathway that is very popular during the weekday commute and also in the weekends. 

The wharf area has opportunities to enjoy views of the harbour.  While today was overcast and had been raining earlier in the morning, the harbour was very calm.  I could see around the harbour and wharf area with Mount Cargill in the distance. 

 

The wharf area is quiet on the weekends with wide streets making it easy for trucks to travel to the warehouses and during the week the streets are full of parked cars from people who work in the CBD looking for free all day parking. 

I had thought that there would not be much to see during my walk around the streets of the industrial part of the Dunedin but there were a number of interesting old buildings.  These two buildings were built in 1872-1885 not long after the land they stand on was reclaimed. 

I also walked over the overbridge which connects the wharf area to the rest of the city and the overbridge was built in 1976.  It crosses the railway yard and Cumberland Street. The railway yard is not as big as it once was but it is still impressive to walk over and look down on the railway lines . 

The overbridge also crosses Cumberland Street which is also State Highway One.  Cumberland Street is the main road going south through the city but early on a Sunday there is very little traffic. 

The overbridge is also a good place to be able to see the area that I was walking the streets around today.

Today I walked past an interesting sculpture called Toroa which was placed here in 1989 and represents the wings of the Royal Albatross, of which the only only breeding colony of the albatross on the mainland can be seen from the site of the sculpture. Toroa is the Maori for albatross.

The other monument that I walked past today is the Royal Navy's tribute the Otago sailors that died on the HMS Neptune which ran into a minefield and sank in the Mediterranean in 1945. 

And lastly, I walked past some good murals on buildings in the streets around the wharf area.

 

Distance walked:  10.8  km         Walking time   2 hrs  

 

Total distance: 522.9 km       Total walking  97 hr 50 mins