Dunedin

Dunedin is the South Island's second-largest city, built at the head of Otago Harbour on wealth generated by the 1861 Central Otago gold rush. The Scottish Presbyterian settlers who arrived in the 1840s named it after Edinburgh's Gaelic name — Dùn Èideann — and the architectural legacy shows: the city centre has a concentration of Victorian and Edwardian stone buildings that survived the 20th century largely intact. The 1906 Dunedin Railway Station on Anzac Square, with its Flemish Renaissance facade and mosaic floor, is the most photographed building in the South Island.

The Otago Peninsula extends 30 kilometres east of the city into the Pacific, and it is the wildlife, not the architecture, that brings most international visitors to Dunedin. Taiaroa Head at the peninsula's tip is the site of a royal albatross colony — the only mainland breeding colony in the world. The birds arrive in October, chicks hatch in January, and fledglings depart by September; guided tours operate year-round at the Royal Albatross Centre. Yellow-eyed penguins (hoiho), little blue penguins, and New Zealand fur seals are also resident on the peninsula and accessible through guided wildlife operators based in the Portobello and Harington Point area.

Dunedin is also the gateway to the Catlins — the stretch of coast and native forest between the Clutha River and Bluff at the southern tip of the South Island. Purakaunui Falls, Curio Bay's petrified forest and yellow-eyed penguins, and the fur seal colony at Nugget Point are the main stops; the Catlins appears on relatively few standard New Zealand itineraries, which is one of the reasons the wildlife and landscape remain in good condition. Halal dining in Dunedin is limited; a small number of halal-certified options are available in the central city, and supermarkets stock halal-certified meat.