Day Forty One Helensburgh

 It was another lovely day to be out walking the streets and I walked 15 streets today.

536. Pioneer Crescent
537. Derwent Street
538. Caleb Place
539. Joshua Place
540. Honeystone Street
541. Larkins Street
542. Tuckett Street
543. Centennial Avenue
544. Mayfield Avenue
545. Holyrood Avenue
546. Lynn Street
547. Strathern Avenue
548. Jason Street
549. Upland Street
550. Blantyre Road

I started my walk on Helensburgh Road but I still have quite a lot of Helensburgh Road to walk so I can't count it towards my street total yet but it is worth mentioning because this part of Helensburgh Road runs beside a creek.  It would be very pleasant living in this part of Helensburgh Road with all the green trees surrounding the creek.

 

 

Part of my walk took me along Wakari Road to Caleb Place and Joshua Place where the residents have farmland and Flagstaff on their backdoor 

During my walk I walked up Honeystone Street which borders the edge of farmland on Flagstaff.  The views from here were worth the rest stop to catch my breath. 

 After my post yesterday about never getting lost in Dunedin when you can see Mt Cargill, I was able to see Mt Cargill from Larkins Street. 

The other reason that you can never get lost in Dunedin is that if you can't see Mt Cargill, then you can see Flagstaff (and often you can see both!) Flagstaff is the hill in the background of this photo. The best views of Dunedin city are from the top of Flagstaff.  

This is the view from Flagstaff.  It is great to look at this view and know that I have walked most of the city that I can see.  There is still a lot of Dunedin that I need to walk but for the main part, I have walked most of the city centre in this photo.  I did not walk to Flagstaff today but I am showing this picture taken from a couple of days ago.

On my walk today I passed two painted telephone cabinets.  I love how the city has embraced the painted telephone cabinet and use them as 'public art'

Today I saw one of the funniest things I have seen on my walks and I had to stop and look twice to make sure I was seeing what I thought I had seen the first time I looked.  Why anyone would choose to build half a bicycle into the wall of their house I do not know but it is certainly a little unusual. 

There were two letterboxes that caught my attention during my walk today.  The first is this courier van letterbox that (I imagine) belongs to a house owned by a courier driver and the other is this American style barn. 

Distance walked:  9.8 km      Walking time  1 hr 48 mins    

Total distance: 346.3 km       Total walking  65 hr 07 mins

Day Twenty One (part two) Middlemarch

 After walking through Hyde, I drove 27km down the road to Middlemarch where I walked 18 streets.

247. Snow Avenue
248. Conway Street
249. Mold Street
250. Olive Avenue
251. Garthmyl Road

252. Tawe Street

253. Cardigan Street
254. Clywd Street
255. Brecon Street
256. Milford Street
257. Swansea Street
258. Browns Road
259. Aberfon Street
260. Bank Street
261. Kirk Street
262. Nottage Street
263. South Road
264. West Street

I confess that there are some streets in Middlemarch that I did not walk all of the street because it was not safe.  I walked to the edge of the town and as far as the 100km speed sign and with no footpath, I felt it was not safe to continue further.  

I started my walk at the Middlemarch Railway Station.  The station was opened in 1891 and was part of the Otago Central Railway line.  In 1990, the station and rail line from Middlemarch to Dunedin was taken over by the Taieri Gorge Railway and used for sightseeing train trips up the Taieri Gorge.  Now the train no longer travels as far as Middlemarch and the station is not used anymore.  

At the Middlemarch Railway Station is this 133 year old steam engine which was withdrawn from service and dumped in the Clutha River in 1932 to protect the Roxburgh Branch line from erosion.  In 1992 the remains of the steam engine were discovered.  They were eventually recovered  it is slowly under going restoration. 

Where Olive Street joins Tawe Street is the start (or finish, depending on which way you cycle) of the Central Otago Rail Trail which is a 150km cycle track that follows the old railway line to Clyde.  Built in the 1990's after the railway line was closed the Rail Trail is popular with cyclists.  

 

 

While Middlemarch is part of Dunedin City it is 80km from Dunedin with a population of around 150 people and lies at the base of the Rock and Pillar Range.   It is good walking the streets of Middlemarch as the streets are flat.  One of the streets I walked, Brecon Street started as a normal sealed street and then soon turned into a dirt road then back into a sealed road.  The views of the Rock and Pillar Range from this (and most) streets  in Middlemarch are stunning. 

 

 

Walking the streets of Middlemarch, I saw a number of older churches and one of these is St Chad's Anglican Church, which is 'famous' for having the first church bell sound on the Strath Taieri in 1901.  It is also quite unique because surrounding the church is a beautiful old stone wall and incorporated in the wall is a comfortable stone seat which I took the opportunity to rest in the shade.

 
On my walk around Middlemarch I saw a couple of interesting things, one is these beautiful stone arches beside the railway line. The other is this mural on the side of a building that is a map of the Strath Taieri and Middlemarch area. 

 

Distance walked:  9.4 km  Walking time  1 hr 46 mins    

Total distance: 183.4 km       Total walking  33 hr 53 mins

 

Day Twenty One (part one) Hyde

 Dunedin is the world's fifth largest city in geographical size and the largest in New Zealand.  Dunedin might be big in land size but it is not the largest in population with around 120,000 people.  Dunedin is sparsely populated with a lot of farmland.  Today I decided to go as far from urban Dunedin as I could which meant I started my walk in Hyde, 107 km from the central business district of Dunedin. Today I walked 2 street in Hyde

245. Eton Street
246. Newtown Road

Hyde was originally called Eight Mile and was a gold rush town in the 1860's with up to 16 pubs, now it is a small town with a handful of residents and is the stopping place for cyclists on the Otago Central Rail Trail.  Hyde only has one main street and it was an interesting walk as this is the first gravel foot path I have walked on.  There are also some interesting things to see, things that I would not have seen had I driven through including this old horse drawn plough on the side of the gravel footpath 

There was, reputably, up to 16 pubs in Hyde and there must also have been a number of churches as well.  Today I could find only 2 remaining churches with both looking like are not used for services anymore. 

There is also the old Hyde school, complete with school bell.  Hyde School dates back to 1869 and was closed in 1999. The school buildings and land have been turned into accommodation for those cycling the rail trail. 

A prominent feature of Hyde is the war memorial with one of original hotels, the Otago Central Hotel behind it.  It is a good place to stop, rest and remember. 
 

 After walking the main road of Hyde, I followed part of the rail trail for 2 km to the old Hyde Railway Station.  It is a well maintained building, built in1894,  with old rail wagons and working points.  This is where I walked the second street in Hyde - Newtown Street which goes from the railway station to the highway.

Inside the station itself, there are information panels and part of the station has been refurbished to resemble what the inside of the station would have looked like when it was a working station in the early 1900's.  The station was once very busy transporting Hyde clay to the pottery works in Christchurch and Auckland. 

 

 After walking back along the Otago Rail Trail I drove 27 km's down the road to Middlemarch where I continued my goal of walking every street in Dunedin - including all the streets of Middlemarch as it is also part of Dunedin City.   

Distance walked: 6.2 km  Walking time  1 hr 8 mins    

Total distance: 174 km       Total walking  32 hr 07 mins