Day Eighty One Dalmore

Today my walk was shorter than the last couple of days as I continue to walk around the streets close to home.  I walked 8 streets today

1006. Fea Street
1007. Ramsay Street
1008. Bank Street
1009. Clifford Street
1010. Orbell Street
1011. Falkirk Street
1012. Fortune Street
1013. Franklin Street

This is State Highway One, the main road into Dunedin from the North and is usually a very busy road.  This morning as I walked beside the road, it was deserted with only the occasional truck going up or down.  This is what lockdown looks like. 

My walk today was similar to yesterday in that I walked down the hill, only to turn around and walk back up a different street. The streets I walked today are on the steep side of Pine Hill that gave me good views of Opoho.  I have not walked any streets in Opoho yet.

Once at the bottom of the hill, I walked alongside another quiet street that is normally very busy.  The last time I was in this area walking was back in April when the trees were covered in their Autumn leaves.  

 One of the quick ways up the hill is via the steps off Bank Street. These steps are a good workout and meant that I gained height very quickly. 

Once at the top of the stairs, the views start to open out again.  I enjoyed a rest at the top of the stairs to get my breath back. 

 

The last few streets were steep and I was glad to get to the top.  The good thing about stopping for a break on my way up these steep streets is looking at the view and knowing that I have walked every street that I can see.  

 

One of the more unusual things I saw today during my walk was a chicken walking along the footpath.  It didn't seem concerned to be out on the street or that I walked close by.  

Distance walked:  3.9  km         Walking time  48 mins  

 

Total distance: 656.9 km        Total walking  122 hr 40 mins 

Day Eighty Liberton

I enjoyed my walk in the sunshine around the streets close to home today.  I walked 20 streets

986. Raleigh Street
987. Hillary Street 
988. Dover Street
989. Lowe Street
990. Tasman Street
991. Tensing Street
992. Egmont Street
993. Allenby Avenue
994. Blundell Street
995. Hislop Street
996. Wilkinson Street
997. Truby King Crescent
998. Pryde Street
999. Croydon Street
1000. Barclay Street
1001. Buccleugh Street
1002. Glencairn Street
1003. Gladstone Road
1004. Forrester Avenue
1005. Newhaven Street

 

 It was a frosty start to the morning and I walked gingerly around the streets that were still in the shade.The first group of streets I walked around are all named after mountains and climbers.  Hillary Street and Tensing Street being the most obvious along with Lowe Street for climbing Mount Everest. Tasman and Egmont are New Zealand mountains and Dover is a mountain in Antarctica.

Many of the streets in Liberton have great views.  Some of the streets have good views of Flagstaff and look towards where I was walking yesterday.

Streets on the other side of the hill have great views looking towards the city.  After stopping to admire the view, I walked down the hill to then walk back up to where I started.

The further down the hill I walked, the views changed to looking towards Opoho and North East Valley.  The road also became very narrow as it grew steeper the nearer I got to the bottom.

The residents of these houses have very steep sections/gardens and very little parking but the views they get are outstanding. These are streets that I have not walked yet.

Of course what goes down must also go up and some of the up was quite steep but as I walked up the hill, I was reward with more great views.   This is looking towards Opoho and are streets that I have not walked yet.

The higher I walked up the hill, the views changed and I was able see over to the Dunedin Botanical Gardens with a glimpse of the harbour and Waverley beyond.

And as I neared the crest of the hill, the view changed back to Flagstaff.  The weather is beautiful and the views have been fantastic today. 

I stopped to have a look at the Dalmore Reserve which has been turned into a community vegetable garden.  The garden is a little overgrown after the winter but it does have great views of the city.

One of the more sad things that I have walked past during my challenge of walking every street in Dunedin is this wooden seat which has a fantastic view of the city.  The seat is dedicated to baby Mae. 

Today I walked past three interesting letterboxes.  One is an ordinary letterbox that is painted like a house while another has used a large piece of interesting wood to cleverly create a letterbox and the third letterbox has been decorated with mosaic tiles.

 

 

The ultimate in recycling is this used chain to make the house number on the fence.

The Pine Hill bus stop has been beautifully painted with scenes of the early Pine Hill School. The scenes are taken from old photographs of the school and have been faithfully replicated in the bus stop.

 

Distance walked:  11.2  km         Walking time  2 hr 10 mins  

 

Total distance: 653.0 km        Total walking  121 hr 52 mins 

Day Seventy Nine Pine Hill

New Zealand is in Lockdown  Alert Level 4 which is our highest level of restrictions due to an outbreak of Covid 19 in the community. It means that I am only allowed to exercise locally.  I have not walked the streets close to home as I had thought if NZ was to go into Lockdown, then I would be able to continue my walking the streets of Dunedin.  Today I walked 3 streets

983. Pine Hill Road
984. Maxwellton Street
985. Patmos Avenue

I started my walk by walking up the hill towards Mt Cargill from my home.  It only takes about 10 minutes walking to reach farmland and the views of the city really start to open up. It was a good feeling looking at this view knowing that I have walked every street that I could see. 

As I walked around the hill  I was rewarded with a view of Pine Hill which is where I live.  I still need to walk these streets but with Lockdown, these will be the next streets that I will be walking. 

 As I started walking down the hill to Leith Valley I crossed over a bridge that goes over the Northern Motorway.  This is State Highway One and is the main road to get into the city from the North.  Normally this is a very busy road but as we are in Lockdown and the only travel allowed is for essential services (e.g. food and medicine) there was very little traffic. 

On my walk I caught a glimpse of the magnificent house built by Dunedin's first bishop.  This house is huge and was built in the 1880's by the the first Bishop of Dunedin who lived here for 50 years and raised a family of five children.

At the entrance to the property once owned by the first Bishop is the gatehouse which is, itself, a beautiful home.  The gatehouse is much smaller that the main house.

Spring is definitely in the air and it was wonderful to walk past these trees covered in beautiful blossom.  I have walked past these trees before back in April when they were losing their leaves.  

 

And finally I walked back up the hill towards home by walking up Pine Hill Road, and over the bridge over George Street which is the main street of Dunedin.  As it is Lockdown, the streets are very quiet with no traffic today. 

It might seem a strange photo but this fence is a new fence, only a few weeks old,  that replaced a very old fence that ran up the side of the road.  This is a much nicer and safer fence.  

 

Looking over the side of the fence part, I could see that road has been built up with most of the road not actually on the ground but suspended on a bridge. 

On my walk today I walked past a number of these traps which are part of the Halo Project.  The Halo Project maintains a number of predator traps to protect the native wildlife.  There are a variety of traps for possum, stoats and rats around the fringes of the city that are regularly checked by volunteers

To show that half my walk was past farmland on the edge of the city, here are some of the farm animals that I walked past today.

I walked past this lovely stone fence built from the stones that the farmer cleared from his paddocks.  This is a very old style way of making a fence but this fence is only a few years old.

I walked past these two letterboxes.  One is painted with a kereru (NZ wood pigeon) and the other is shaped like a man going walkabout.

Lastly is this painted telephone cabinet that I walked past today. 

Distance walked:  10.4  km         Walking time  1 hr 55 mins  

 

Total distance: 641.8 km        Total walking  119 hr 42 mins 

Day Seventy Eight Fairfield

Today it feels like spring with warmer weather and a few spring flowers starting to show.  I walked 10 streets today.

973. Bremner Street
974. Howorth Road
975. Duxford Crescent
976. Holyport Close
977. Sunnyhurst Drive
978. Main South Road
979. Chadwick Street
980. Flower Street
981. Bellona Lane
982. Kennedy Road

The area that I am walking was once the main road out of Dunedin but when the Southern Motorway was built in the early 1970's, Fairfield became a quiet suburb.  The streets I walked today are wide and reasonably flat. 

At the start of Fairfield is the Sunnyvale sports fields.  These are very large sports fields that are popular for weekend sports

 

On my walk today, there was only the occasional view of the surrounding hills today.  The name Fairfield was given to the farm by one of Dunedin's early settlers.

Fairfield is one of the cities newer suburbs and borders farmland. I found it interesting where the city streets end and the gravel roads to the farmland begin.

One part of Fairfield borders a wetlands area.  It is a nice quiet and pretty space in amongst the roads and houses. 

The wetlands are home to a family of pukeko.  These pukeko didn't seem to be too worried about people and I spent some time watching them feeding among the plants of the wetlands.

 It was a lovely warm, sunny day today and I noticed lots of spring colour starting to show with rhododendrons and daffidols coming to life after the cold of winter.

 

 During my walk today, I saw these coloured ladybugs on the side of the road. They are super cute and I wonder if they are placed to stop cars from parking on the grass.

I walked past a number of interesting letterboxes during my walk today.  The telepone pole with insulators really intrigued me and I loved the one with the dog on top.  The Snoopy letterbox looked like a fun letterbox and the wooden plank made me wonder about the size of the tree that it came from. 

And finally I have added the map of Dunedin with the streets I have walked in red.  The streets I have been walking in the last few weeks are on the bottom left.

Distance walked:  7.5  km         Walking time  1 hr 18 mins  

 

Total distance: 631.4 km        Total walking  117 hr 47 mins