“There is light at the end of every tunnel. To get there just follow the silver lining.”

February 26

Our BIG hike is one week from today. Yikes! To get some steps and elevation in, we took a relatively short but steep hike at Tunnel Beach Walk. There were beautiful coastal views and a really cool sandstone archway jutting out into the ocean.

We walked through an 1870’s hand dug tunnel to a beautiful secluded beach nestled among the towering sandstone cliffs.

The climb back up to the top was a bit arduous and good practice for next week.

Not having much of a plan for the rest of the day, we headed into Dunedin to do some exploring. We popped over to the Railway Station, which opened in 1906, and is known as “Gingerbread George,” after architect George Troup and his ornate embellishments of the station.

Ravenous from our hike and unable to wait until dinner, we noshed on hummus and crackers in our car.

We drove to (but not up) Baldwin Street, recognized in 1987 as the world’s steepest street by the Guinness Book of World Records. The street is not long, about 1/4 mile, but its maximum gradient is 19 degrees.

The lookout at Signal Hill afforded us another panoramic view of Dunedin and the surrounding area and is also where I did a quick Superman costume change into my more presentable dinner attire.

We had a forgettable dinner at Bacchus Wine Bar but an unforgettable Hokey Pokey gelato experience at Gelato Junkie. This is a thing here, this Hokey Pokey ice cream: vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered homemade honeycomb toffee. Wow. Delicious.