Day 5 - Dunedin (Taieri)

Fraser Dam

This was the second day of a cold southerly that had settled in for a few days and until then it was easy to forget that the next stop south was Antarctica. The taller ranges were now dusted in snow, which made the landscape look quite wintry, even though this was still summer. The cold wind coupled with weather systems coming in from the West had bought low cloud and occasional showers for the flight to Taireri just south of Dunedin, over on the East Coast.

Dunedin Airport

Fred flew the leg out and we had to keep below the low cloud and avoid some of the larger rain showers. The route took us out south westerly through Cromwell and then Alexandra, where a large military training exercise was taking place with the NZ Air Force. We kept well clear though it did not stop the temporary military tower reminding us that they were there, assuming perhaps we had not read the local NOTAMs. We told them it was why we were giving them a wide berth! We were to meet the controller a few days later.

Stand up straight Nick

Although not gusty, the showers followed us most of the way down the Clutha River to Beaumont, then SE to Lawrence where Dunedin asked us to track the south eastern side of the valley up to our destination airfield of Taieri. One of our fellow aircraft had been cleared to track the shorter NW side, resulting in us arriving only a few minutes ahead of them. By now the wind had got up and we covered and tied the aircraft down before heading in to Dunedin for lunch.

Tough at the top

We spent some time exploring the town, looking at the architecture and checking out the art gallery in the town centre’s Octagon. We were also driven up Baldwin Street, the steepest residential road in the world (we were told) which rises from 30m to 100m in just 350m. It has a gradient of 1:2.86 towards the top section, 1 metre up for every 2.86 walked, or rather climbed.



The port, railway and a semi-industrial area separate the main part of town from the waterfront so quayside walks or restaurant to explore. Parts of the town are quite interesting and there are some good restaurants tucked away. Soon back at the aircraft we decided to fly back via a northern route as it was felt the weather would be better, which proved to be the case.

St Bathans Range

Geordie Hill Sunshine

I took off and departed overhead and out over the town towards Palmerston where we picked up the Shag River towards Naseby. By this time the cloud had lifted and the sun was beginning to break through. We dropped back in to GHS from the East via Dunstan Creek with the Bathans Range, capped in snow, to our right. As ever GHS was in sunshine with little wind. It became something of a trend over the trip that whatever the weather out to the west or east, the Lindis valley and Geordie Hill Station seemed to be bathed in a sunny calm whatever was going on a few miles in either direction.