Day 119 Company Bay

Today I continued to walk streets further down the peninsula and walked the streets in Company Bay, Mission Cove and Cosy Dell.  I walked 16 streets.

1611. Luss Road
1612. Lauder Street
1613. Raynbird Street
1614. Glenfinlass Street
1615. Brenton Street
1616. Hinkley Terrace
1617. McLelland Street
1618. Porterfield Street
1619. Kellas Street
1620. Gorman Street
1621. Ngaio Street
1622. Bewley Avenue
1623. Bayne Terrace
1624. Mission Cove
1625. Castlewood Road
1626. McTaggart Street

 

The plan for today's streets seemed to be up and so I started at the edge of the harbour with the first street I walked taking me up the hill.  It rose steeply quite quickly.  Of course as I walked up, I took a rest stop to see the view of the harbour opening up.

And the higher I walked, the better the view became.  The residents of the houses on these streets get amazing views looking down the harbour towards the city.

And if I thought the streets weren't steep enough, they became so steep that they were sealed in concrete.  Concrete is used when it is too steep for asphalt to be used.  I have walked a few concrete streets around the city but this was something I was not expecting here.

Where ever I walked today, I was rewarded with wonderful views.  That is one of the good things about walking streets on the hills - the views! 

And then there were times that I was able to look across to the streets where I had been walking earlier in the day.  It is fair to say that I was surprised by how steep some of these streets are. 

Next thing I knew, I was back walking down near the harbour.  From here I was able to look across to Macandrew Bay where I had walked yesterday. 

The harbour is popular for recreation.  During my walking today, I saw lots of cyclists and walkers using the harbour cycle/walkway and on the water I saw a number of kayakers, paddle boarders and small sailboats.  This is a group of stand up paddle boarders.

I walked past this bus shelter painted with the likeness of John Noakes who lived in Broad Bay (the next bay around).  John Noakes spent  years painting murals on bus shelters around the city.  I have walked past many of the bus shelters that he painted and have featured them in this blog. John Noakes died in 2006 but not before he had painted 65 bus shelters.

 

And this is one of the bus shelters painted by John Noakes that I walked past today.

Something unusual that I walked past today was this Donald Duck sign.  I am not sure why it has been put there but it looks like it's been there for a while.

Another unusual thing that I walked past today was this huge wooden chair, positioned to take in the view looking across the harbour.  The large chair is near the top of one of the steep streets that I walked up today and was a good place for a rest.

 

 

I walked past a couple of interesting letterboxes today.  I really liked the letters on one of the letterboxes because they were made from Oamaru Stone and I thought the house letterbox looked fun.  I wondered if the people painted in the windows of the house represented the people who live at the house that the letter box belongs to. 

 This map shows the streets in red that I have walked.  On the left side of the harbour is Macandrew Bay and Company Bay where I have been walking the last couple of days and on the left side of the harbour are streets that I have walked a few weeks ago.

 Distance walked:  9.6 km         Walking time  1 hr 53 mins    

Total distance: 986.9  km          Total walking  184 hr 26 mins 

Day Ninety Four Maia

With daylight savings and spring, the days are getting longer which means I can walk more in the evening.  Today I walked 9 streets.

1246. Manapouri Street
1247. Ascog Road
1248. Ravensbourne Road
1249. Rotoiti Street
1250. Fern Road
1251. Isabel Street
1252. Babsie Road
1253. Jesse Street
1254. De Lacy Street

As I was walking in the evening, after work today, I headed back to Ravensbourne where I had been walking last week and walked the streets of the neighbouring suburb of Maia. The streets in Maia are just as steep as Ravensbourne. 

 

And as I have seen throughout my walking the streets of Dunedin, walking the streets on the hills means great views. The residents of these houses get great views looking across the harbour to the hills of the peninsula.

 

After walking the steep streets to the bottom, I chose to walk up the streets that wound their way up the hill.  It was still the same height gain but it was much easier walking, although the streets are still very narrow.

 

At the top, I came across a new street which is part of a new subdivision.  The houses that are being built in this new street are all going to have fantastic views looking up the harbour. 

 

Having already walked down the hill and back up, I then walked down Jesse Street which must rival Baldwin Street for the steepest street title. Jesse Street is only one way for down hill traffic.

 

And once at the bottom, I had to walk back up the hill (for the second time tonight).  Like the last time, I walked up a street that was less steep and wound it's way up the hill. 

 

The painted bus stop at Maia is painted with a harbour view and native birds often seen in the area.

Distance walked:  5.3 km         Walking time  1 hr 3 mins   

 
Total distance: 771.5 km          Total walking  144 hr 38 mins 

Day Ninety One Ravensbourne

Another lovely day in Dunedin so I took the opportunity for an evening walk and returned to walk some more streets in Ravensbourne.  Today I walked 13 streets.

1205. Manuka Street
1206. Matai Street
1207. Junction Road
1208. Adderley Terrace
1209. Short Street
1210. Hinau Street
1211. Monowai Road
1212. Wanaka Street
1213. Wakatipu Street
1214. Totara Street
1215. Seddon Street
1216. Athol Place
1217. Ohau Street

 

Ravensbourne is on the side of the harbour that loses the sun in the evening, however the views more than made up for walking in the shadows. 

The streets of Ravensbourne are narrow and wind their way around the side of the hill.  One of the benefits of being on the hill is that I was rewarded with great views from every street I walked tonight.

As I walked the streets on this side of the harbour, I was able to look over at the sunny side and know that I have walked all the streets that I could see. I had walked the streets opposite in January and at the time, my challenge to walk every street in Dunedin seemed like an impossible task. Now I have walked around 3/4 of Dunedin's streets.

It was a lovely evening to be out walking and as I made my way down the hill, the city and harbour views continued to open out.  

Eventually I made it back to the bottom of the hill and walked along beside the road and railway line as the sun was setting. 

As I walked along beside the harbour and railway line, I was able to look over at Macandrew Bay which was still in the sunshine.  I have walked along the road as far as Macandrew Bay but I haven't walked the streets in Macandrew Bay yet. 

And finally I finished my walk by walking up a couple of the steep, narrow streets.  This photo doesn't show it, but this street is steep and a good challenge for the legs and lungs.

 

Today I walked past the Ravensbourne fire station.  This is a small fire station which is run by volunteers who give up their time to train and fight fires.  Even though it is still in the city, the volunteers would be first at a fire or car accident.  The fire bell out the front is a memorial to firefighters who have died while still being on active service.

I didn't see any interesting letterboxes on my walk today but there were a number of houses in Ravensbourne that had interesting things on their fences.  The residents of this house had lots of small windmills as well as ornaments on their fence.

And I am not sure why the residents of this house would have a fly stuck in a spider web as their fence. 

The residents of this house look like they have made their own unique fence ornaments.

The railway line runs through Ravensbourne and the Ravensbourne bus stop is cleverly painted as a tribute to the railway line.  One one side is the walking bridge over the railway line.  The way it is painted, it is made to look like you could walk over it and the other side has a lovely steam train.

The other street art that I saw on my walk today was this fox painted on a garage door. 

Distance walked:  4.5 km         Walking time  56 mins  

Total distance: 745.3 km          Total walking  139 hr 44 mins 

Day Eighty Three Steepest Street in the World

Dunedin is home to the world's steepest street and today was a bit of a milestone as I got to walk Baldwin Street.   I walked 26 streets today.

1026. Blacks Road
1027. Gillespie Street
1028. Royston Street
1029. Marquis Street
1030 Balfour Street
1031. Mowat Street
1032. Farquharson Street
1033. Roxburgh Street
1034. Grey Street
1035. James Street
1036. Longworth Street
1037. Primrose Bank
1038. Dalmeny Street
1039. Calder Avenue
1040. Buchanan Street
1041. Baldwin Street
1042. Felix Street
1043. Pentland Street
1044. Coburn Avenue
1045. Selwyn Street
1046. Paisley Avenue
1047. Calverley Street
1048. Lazar Street
1049. Carr Street
1050. Scone Avenue
1051. Jura Street

Today was another day where I was walking up and down the streets on the hill side of North East Valley. I started my walk up Blacks Road which goes from North East Valley up to Opoho and is very steep. 

The only good thing about Blacks Road is that it has a number of short streets off it which were a good opportunity for a bit of a rest and time to catch my breath. These streets also gave me a chance to see the view of North East Valley open up below me.

Of course what goes up must also go down and that was the story for most of my walk today.  The streets became steeper the closer I got to Baldwin Street.  Some of the streets are sealed with concrete because asphalt  or chip seal would melt and flow down the hill on a warm day and also for safety in Dunedin's frosty winters.

Baldwin Street has been measured and confirmed as the steepest street in the world.  While the bottom part of Baldwin Street has a gentle gradient, the upper part is very steep with a gradient of 1:2.86 which means that for every 2.86m traveled it climbs 1m in height. 

For those who make it to the top of Baldwin Street, there is a seat to sit and rest while admiring the view.  

 And once I was back at the bottom of Baldwin Street, I was able to look back up the hill, knowing that I had completed the steepest streets in world.

 

During my walk today, I walked past the North East Valley School gates which are a war memorial which commemorates former school pupils who were killed during the wars.  The soldier on the top was taken down many years ago as an earthquake risk and in 2007 it was returned to the top of gates.

Just along the road from the war memorial gates is the North East Valley Post Office which was built in 1914 and was in operation until 1988.  In more recent years the building has been a coffee shop. 

 As Baldwin Street is the steepest street in the world, it is a popular street to walk up by tourists and locals.  Often you can see people running up the street.  At the top of the street, there are these plaques commemorating some of the more unusual ways of getting up the streets. 

This photo shows how steep Baldwin Street.  The house is not built on an angle but this photo is taken to make the street look flat. 

I saw some more great street art on my walk today.

On my walk today, I saw two unusual letterboxes.  This cute red one and the other is propped up by an old chair. 

Distance walked:  9.0  km         Walking time  1 hr 48 mins  

 

Total distance: 670.1 km        Total walking  125 hr 26 mins