suuuurrrrPRISE!

What a week Dunedin has put on for us! It has been such good weather I went to the beach at St Kilda 3 times and now I have lots more freckles and am a bit browner, not that I tried to be, and not that you would probably notice. Seriously the beach in the past week has been a revelation to me. I have often thought that Dunedin would be so much cooler if it had a more swimable beach, and by that I meant if it wasnt so cold. On my past three beach missions it has been very swimable, we were in the water for about 30min each time! Did lots of body surfing on first and last trip but on the second one the waves were too massive and too many people to bump into. The water was still colder than North Island beaches like the Mount but not by much. From my memory I can recall only a handful other Dunedin sea swims and they mostly lasted less than 5 minutes. Its like before this week I saw these beautiful beaches and thought what a waste all you can do is walk/sit on the sand and play beach games, me being very much a water person, I just want to swim. So now Dunedin is that much better in my books for having some beautiful beaches that at times like this can actually live up to their potential. Alas I know it is not to last forever and winter shall be here soon enough and that this will be but a memory and a hope for the summer. And I do fear that this revelation will lead me back to the ocean in colder seasons and when that happens I shall not last long, but I will likely try my best to enjoy those waves for the 5 minutes I can bare. Its funny that Im starting my 5th year here and Dunedin continues to surprise. I would rank this up there with a couple of other revelations about Dunedin that really added value for me, such as the one or two snow falls a year, which make the cold so worth it, and discovering the incredible beauty of the Peninsular, especially on a good day and especially on the other side and its so close at hand! Here are some photos of my value adding revelations:

The Beach

The Penisular

The snow

Also another surprise Dunedin threw at me last week was discovering a hidden “mall” on George st called Golden Harvest Mall. It's just down from Mc Donald’s and only has a few shops but the crazy thing is that I have always just walked past it without much of a thought. Plus there is an entrance from the back near the back McDonalds entrance. I went there for Dim Sum, the best Dim sum ive had, this being my third time. After the first two experiences I was ready to write it off, but it has survived my wrath and I will give it another chance, oh look surprise surprise another surprise! This all a bit incongruent wouldn’t you say.