Done with Dunedin

We awoke this morning to the now familiar percussion on our van roof, starting with the low, soft timpani of snowflakes, and ending with a sharp flurry of snare hits as another hailstorm passed overhead. A peek through the curtains revealed a slushy scene, through which we tromped to the kitchen to make poached eggs and smashed avocados. However, the avocado was still a rock-hard bullet, refusing to ripen in the cold air and nullifying all attempts to smash it. The eggs were good though, but the accompanying cup of coffee was perhaps the most fetid that mankind could produce, owing to the mistaken purchase of rice milk, which curdled instantly on contact with the hot liquid.

Snow on them thar hills

Before heading farther north, we made our way carefully into town and marched, hunched shouldered, around the Octagon at the centre of Dunedin.

Octagon

 The churches are prominent at the centre and the black stone rail station is an impressive edifice.

Rail station

Next to the station is the Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, around which I took a quick spin, while K investigated the museum café. The museum laid out the chronology of Dunedin from before the Europeans arrived until the present day. Most of the early arrivals were sealers and whalers, sending the blubber-based oil home to Britain. The relationship with the existing Maori seems to have been relatively peaceful, resulting in inter-marriage and mutually beneficial trading. That said, Dunedin was home to a gaol that housed some Maori from Taranaki who opposed European settlement.

Settlers Museum

The first significant wave of immigration to the area came in 1848, when ships bearing Presbyterian Scots settlers arrived in what they deemed to be "New Edinburgh". Apparently Billy Connolly has a stand-up piece on the similarity of the dour Scottish lowlands and Dunedin, particularly with reference to the rain, wind and mud. Indeed, in the 19th century, the town was known as "Mud-edin" - a monicker to which the inside of our van can stand testament.

Having sampled the excellent apple, fig and walnut muffin on offer at the café, we ventured farther up country along the east coast in search of more hospitable conditions. Our search was met with drier weather north of Oamaru, but a relentless wintry chill as we parked up in Knottingley Park and arboretum.

Nevertheless, we took a stroll among the autumn colours before repairing to the van with a spicy curry I concocted using a long-sought tin of young green jackfruit.

Jackfruit curry

Nowhere in SE Asia had I seen this product on sale, but managed to pick up a can in an Asian supermarket in Motueka. The fibrous fruit/vegetable is bland when young and took on the flavours of the spices and red peppers in the curry enriched with coconut milk.