Ethicare Resourcing
The everyday

Food, shopping & the everyday

Dunedin Guide · Chapter 8 of 9

A city of 130,000 should not have this many good places to eat. It does, for two reasons: 20,000 students who need feeding cheaply, and a century of Scottish, Chinese and more recent Asian and Middle Eastern settlement that left its mark on the kitchens.

Saturday at the station

The Otago Farmers Market runs every Saturday morning in the car park beside the railway station, and it is the closest thing the city has to a weekly civic ritual. Producers come in from the Taieri, Central Otago and the Catlins; you go for the vegetables and stay for the coffee and the whitebait fritter.

It is not a tourist market. Most of the city shops there, and after a couple of months you will recognise half the queue.

Six parts of the city worth an evening

The Octagon
The literal and social centre. Bars and restaurants ring the plaza, and on a warm evening the tables spill onto the grass in front of the town hall.
The warehouse precinct
Vogel and Bond Streets, where the Victorian warehouses have been restored into restaurants, breweries and design studios. The best-looking few blocks in Dunedin.
George Street
The main shopping street, running north from the Octagon towards the university. Recently rebuilt as a slower, more pedestrian-friendly stretch.
St Clair Esplanade
Cafés looking straight at the surf. Breakfast here on a clear Sunday is one of the reasons people move.
Port Chalmers
Fifteen minutes up the harbour: a working port with a good little arts and food scene attached to it.
Roslyn village
The hill suburb’s own strip of cafés and shops — useful when you do not want to go down the hill.

Beer, and the Scottish inheritance

Dunedin takes brewing seriously. The city has a long-established brewing tradition and a strong craft scene that grew out of it, with several breweries running taprooms you can walk between. If beer is your thing, this is one of the better small cities in the country for it.

The Scottish founding still shows in the street names, the architecture, the pipe bands and a certain civic seriousness — less in the food, though you will find haggis on a menu in January if you look.

The everyday shop

Supermarkets
The major chains cover the city, with the larger stores on the flat and in Mosgiel. Prices are comparable with the rest of the South Island.
Asian groceries
Several well-stocked stores near the university and in the centre, serving the student population — the practical answer for most of the ingredients you cannot find in a supermarket.
Furnishing an empty house
The usual big-box retailers are on the flat and in South Dunedin. For character furniture, the city’s second-hand and antique trade is unusually good, a legacy of all those large old houses.
Online
Trade Me handles a great deal of the second-hand market. Delivery from the North Island takes an extra day and sometimes an extra charge — a small, persistent tax on living this far south.

Culture, for a small city

The public art gallery is free and good. There are three museums worth your time — the settlers’ museum, the Otago Museum and the university’s own collections. The Regent Theatre and a scattering of smaller venues cover touring theatre and music, and the student population keeps live music alive in a way that cities twice the size struggle to manage.

A few practical notes
  • Finding what you grew up with. The student population supports a surprising range of Asian and Middle Eastern grocers for a city this size.
  • Ask the community groups — faster than hunting supermarket shelves, and people share sources readily.
  • Bring reusable bags. Single-use plastic bags are banned nationwide.
The short version

More good food, beer and culture than a city this size has any right to — because 20,000 students and 150 years of civic ambition both insist on it.

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