December 30th - Dunedin

Even the forecast was for wet today! Another downward shift on the barometer of Rob's mood...
But at least fore-warned was fore-armed. Rob heroically agreed to go shopping with me in the morning - as is usually the case, when you specifically go shopping, you can't find any of the things you are looking for (namely, birthday presents for the clutch of close friends who all have early January birthdays. It seemed an opportunity missed not to buy something New Zealand-ish).
We also went round the Anglican Cathedral - not very inspiring, architecturally, though it did have a four-manual Willis organ, dating from 1919. The cathedral was started in 1915, and dedicated in 1919, but not finished...It had a temporary chancel, while they tried to raise some more money to finish it off, complete with a tower. Fifty years later, everyone finally admitted that the temporary chancel was never going to be built to the original idea, and a modern chancel was added, without tower!
The railway station, on the other hand, was fascinating as far as architecture went. And finished. Beautifully finished, with 700,000 Royal Doulton tiles making up the mosaic entrance floor, and fabulous glazed wall tiles, and stained glass in the ceiling lights. I took some photographs.

In the afternoon, the rain came down in earnest - happily, we'd found a second-hand bookshop the other day, so where better to go? The guy who ran it sounded totally New Zealand, and was born here - but his parents came from Barnsley and Bradford. Good swop really, as far as views and countryside goes...
The museum has a fantastic butterfly house - warm, for one thing - so that took care of the rest of the afternoon, and the butterflies were amazing, especially watching one of them come out of its chrysalis. Dunedin has still been the most disappointing place we've visited, though. Too gloomy, for one thing, and most of the people we've passed on the streets look gloomy as well.