Why Dunedin is worth visiting in autumn, with bush walks and gothic delights

Nicholl's Falls in Dunedin's Leith Valley is a surprising find in a city better known for its urban adventures. Photo / Dunedin NZ

Dunedin’s outdoor delights add to the historical and cultural highlights that make it a fine city to visit, writes Tim Roxborogh

Maybe the whole “Edinburgh of the South” moniker for Dunedin is misleading. With Scotland among the least-forested countries in all of Europe, I can’t be the only non-Dunedin-ite guilty of thinking those Gaelic influences might extend as far as a lack of serious bush walks. But when your latest Dunedin adventure has you just 10-minutes from the CBD and you’re wading in a lush, green gorge dwarfed by rock-hugging native forest, it’s a reminder how often perceptions can miss.

Dunedin is worthy of your tourist dollars this autumn for all the reasons most of us already know. Beyond the city’s clear Scottish links, you’ve got things like the terrific stone-based historic buildings that date back to the boom years of the 19th Century Gold Rush. Whether Edwardian or Victorian, Gothic or Georgian, Dunedin is a must-visit for anyone with even a vague interest in architecture.

Then there's the vibrancy that comes from being a true university town, not to mention the abundant evidence in the form of boutiques, galleries and street art that Dunedin is both a fashion hub and an artistic hub. Blessed with mountains, beaches, gardens and an endlessly photo-friendly harbour, these are the well-established calling cards of a city that was once the largest in all the land; 150 years later it may've slipped to seventh (there are roughly 120,000 people in the greater Dunedin urban area), but its credentials are as solid as its grand old public buildings.

But I'm always going to be drawn to the under-rated and overlooked and it's clear to me the wet, wild and wonderful bush walks of Dunedin aren't mentioned nearly enough.

Dunedin's Leith Valley makes a glorious autumn getaway. Photo / Dunedin NZ

There's often a moment on a bush walk where you finally embrace the mud, and stop putting so much energy into avoiding it. It's freeing, and it's also something to succumb to sooner rather than later when making the slippery trek to Nichols Falls in the Leith Valley. Enveloped within a huge 5600 hectares of shadowy, tangled, dense bush, the bridal-veil-type falls thunder away after recent rains. One and half km on foot from a roadside car park, they may be the destination, but those cliches about the journey ring true.

For a start, the forest is famous for the glow-worms that reveal themselves as soon as the last of the filtered sun disappears for the day. Then there are all the moss-covered rocks and fallen trees that criss-cross the river that runs along the bottom of the gorge. Ferns sprout from every angle, including jutting directly out the side of the gorge's enclosing walls.

Our trek in had us overlooking the gorge as it lay precarious to our right, but for the return leg back from the waterfall we decided to go all-in, stone-hopping and wading through the cool ankle-deep waters. Visually, it reminded me of an unforgettable day-trip in Indonesia about a dozen years back to a place called "The Green Canyon" near the West Javan town of Pangandaran. I never guessed that one day I'd find a near equal in Dunedin.

Then again, I also didn't know that somewhere as soul-nourishing as this, is hardly a one-off in Dunedin. Just ask all the joggers who make the trails through the nearby Woodhaugh Gardens and Ross Creek Reservoir their own personal fitness regime. And a quick inspection of Google Maps will tell you these tracts of really quite remarkable urban forest form a broader green belt for Dunedin, but one subtle enough from the main route lines that you might not realise their extent.

Add to that places slightly out of town like the Organ Pipes rock formations on Mt Cargill - a geologically significant jumble of natural pillars surrounded by rainforest - and you start to get a much fuller Dunedin picture beyond those old Scarfie caricatures.

As for where to stay, everything in Dunedin is pretty close, but you'll struggle to do better than the hillside suburb of Roslyn. Just minutes from the Octagon and overlooking the CBD and the harbour below, our Airbnb was a cute three-bedroom villa surrounded by giant ferns. Our 2-year old Riley had her own room with a portacot, as well as a separate room specifically for kids filled with toys and books.

We could walk to the local village cafes and playgrounds, admiring the architecture of the lovely heritage homes that dominate this part of the city. And as a launchpad for exploring all those outstanding bushwalks my misperceptions of Dunedin told me couldn't possibly exist, it was perfect.

For more things to see and do in the region, go to dunedinnz.com