100 trips for 100 years with Dunedin on Foot: hospital

Monday, September 20, 2021

Day Ninety Evansdale & Warrington

My plan was to walk the streets of the townships/suburbs north of Dunedin today and I walked four townships - Evansdale, Warrington, Seacliff and Karitane. In this blog I will concentrate on the streets I walked in Evansdale and Warrington, and my next blog will cover the streets of Seacliff and Karitane. I walked 18 streets.

1163. King Street
1164. Jones Road
1165. Bank Road
1166. View Street
1167. Bay Road
1168. Esplanade
1169. Church Road
1170. Watson Street
1171. Ferguson Street
1172. Park Road
1173. Hill Road
1174. The Terrace
1175. Station Road
1176. The Crescent
1177. Stephenson Street
1178. Couper Street
1179. Perry Street
1180. Porteous Road

Today Evansdale was the first stop on my challenge to walk every street in Dunedin. There is not much at Evansdale apart from farmland, two streets, a handful of houses and a hotel but Evansdale is part of Dunedin which means that I need to walk it's two streets. One of the streets gives a good view of the State Highway One as it heads up the hill called the Kilmog.

From Evansdale, I moved onto walking the streets of Warrington. Warrington is a small seaside township within the Dunedin City boundaries. The streets seem to all lead towards the sea which is not surprising as Warrington has a lovely beach that is popular with families.

Warrington beach is a sandspit and on one side of the beach is Blueskin Bay. I was able to look across the bay to Waitati where I was walking streets yesterday. Mt. Cargill is the hill in the middle of the picture in thedistance and the city of Dunedin is on the other side of Mt. Cargill.

By walking along the road towards the beach, I came to the Warrington Domain which sits behind the sand dunes of the beach and is a popular place for families during the summer. There is also freedom camping available at the domain.

After leaving the domain, it was up a small hill which gave me good views of the beach. It is early spring and with the temperature still being a little cold, there was very few people on the beach today.

As I walked away from the beach I had views of the hills surrounding Warrington. There is also a lot of new houses being built in Warrington.

The railway line passes through Warrington with part of the township on either side. It doesn't seem to matter where you live in Warrington as most houses seem to have a view of the sea or Blueskin Bay.

Known locally as the 'Flying Saucer house', this Futuro house was on display at the 1974 Commonwealth Games, it was then bought and moved to it's present site at the entrance to Warrington in 1975. Apparently there are 8 Futuro houses in New Zealand and this is the only one that I have seen.

Like the Flying Saucer house, this hedge is a bit of an icon in Warrington. A loving husband trimmed the words 'I Love Lois' into his macrocarpa hedge in 2002 as a loving gesture to his wife. The tradition has been carried on to this day, nearly 20 years later.

I did not see any interesting letterboxes during my walk in Warrington or Evansdale today but I did see this unique birdhouse that has been carved out of a large tree stump using a chainsaw.

And lastly I have included a map of Warrington with the streets that I have walked in red.

Distance walked: 5.9 km Walking time 1 hr 2 mins

Total distance: 728.9 km Total walking 136 hr 36 mins

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Day Sixty North Dunedin

Today was a longer walk around the streets surrounding the central city and University. I walked 21 streets today.

727. Albion Lane
728. Cumberland Street
729. Malcolm Street
730. Walsh Street
731. Emily Siedeberg Place
732. Claredon Street
733. Gowland Street
734. Castle Street
735. Bow Lane
736. St Andrew Street

737. St Andrew Street Extension
738. Hanover Street
739. Frederick Street
740. Vire Street
741. Grange Street
742. Leith Street
743. Hyde Street
744. Ethel Benjamin Place
745. Ethel McMillan Place
746. Albion Street
747. Riego Street

Today I carried on walking along the flat so there aren't many views to see but there continues to be many places and buildings of interest. The first building of note that I walked past today was the Dunedin Hospital. The hospital has been on it's current site for more than 150 years with the first patient being admitted in 1866. Over the years the hospital has grown and this is one of the 'newer' building additions to the hospital, this ward block was built in 1983.

The Dunedin Hospital is set to move with the demolition of the Cadbury chocolate factory a few blocks south. The new hospital is expected to cost more than 1.4 billion dollars and take 10 years to build I walked past the site of the new hospital today and can see where the demolition of the Cadbury chocolate factory has begun .

Across the road from the current Dunedin Hospital is the Dunedin Medical School which was built in 1927. The first fully trained doctor graduated from the Dunedin Medical School in 1887 and it was not until 1896 that the first woman doctor graduated.

The first woman to graduate from the Dunedin Medical School was Emily Siedeberg. Emily faced hostile opposition when she enrolled at the medical school and went on to become the first female medical practitioner in New Zealand. Today I walked the street named after her. Emily Siedeberg Place is a small street between the University of Otago and the Dunedin Hospital. There is a plaque in the footpath of the street to commerate Emily Siedeberg.

Next to the medical school is the Otago University's pathology department and is home for the preventive medicine, pathology and bacteriology departments. This lovely art deco building was opened in 1948.

Next to the Dunedin Hospital is the old Queen Mary Maternity Hospital which opened in 1937 and closed in 1990 when it was amalgamated with the Dunedin Hospital. Today it is a residential college for students studying at the University of Otago

Near the Dunedin Hospital, is the University of Otago School of Dentistry. Founded in 1907, this is the only School of Dentistry in New Zealand and is ranked within the top 15 dental schools in the world. Dunedin citizens are able to receive low cost dental treatment by trainee dentists at the dental school.

Today's walk has taken me past many buildings of significance and the last one that I will share is the Central Dunedin Fire Station. Built in 1931, it originally housed the firemen and their families as well as the engines and equipment. While the fire station is still in use today, the firemen no longer live or sleep at the fire station.

Today I walked along part of Anzac Avenue which seemed very appropriate as today is Anzac day. Anzac (Australia New Zealand Armed Corps) is the day that we remember all the soldiers who did not come home from war. Anzac Avenue was built on reclaimed land in 1925 and planted with elm trees.

I was pleased to walk past this hidden Anzac memorial today. Hidden under a tree on the University of Otago art department grounds, this memorial is for all the men who were ex-pupils that gave their lives in the Great War of 1914-1919

I have already mentioned walking Emily Siedeberg Place which is a street named to commemorate the first New Zealand female doctor. There are two other streets that I walked today that are named for other notable females. One is Ethel Benjamin Place, named after Ethel Benjamin who is the first woman to qualify as a lawyer in New Zealand. Ethel enrolled at the University of Otago in 1893 not knowing if she would be able to practice law once she graduated as women were not allowed into the legal profession at that time. Ethel received top marks and in 1897 was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of New Zealand

Ethel McMillan Place is the other street I walked that commemorates a notable female. Ethel McMillan graduated from the University of Otago in 1926 and she was the first female to be elected to the Dunedin City Council where she served for 30 years. Ethel went on to become the first woman elected to New Zealand parliament where she served for 25 years.