Peaks and Places | Travel and Adventure Blog

While Taylor and I were in Dunedin, we tried to see as much as we could. While our time was primarily spent checking out beaches and looking for seals and penguins, we did make sure we got to see the city too. Overall we liked Dunedin a lot; things were cheap, the people were nice, and there are so many awesome beaches. One of our favorite little stops we made in Dunedin was to Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world.

This claim has been disputed by some people online, they say there’s one in Wales that’s steeper, who knows. I’m no expert on the subject so I’m just going to say that the one I’ve been to, Baldwin Street, that’s the steepest street in the world.

We weren’t sure if the van would make it up the road, so we opted to park at the base and walk up. Luckily, there was plenty of street parking. The street rises up 155 feet with a max grade of 35%. Most highways in the US stay below 6%, so this was steep. We walked up the entire thing and were impressed they were able to build houses on it and that people actually live on it. We saw plenty of cars drive up and down it, so the van probably would have made it , but we decided against it.

For comparisons sake, San Francisco’s steepest street, Filbert Street, has a max grade of 31%. So this is pretty close to that of Baldwin Street. Neither Taylor nor I have been to see San Fran’s famous steep roads but we definitely want to go and compare to Baldwin Street.

We were blown away at how stupidly cool this road was, there is no real reason for it to be so entertaining, but it was. This hour period of our day we say far more tourists than any of the awesome beaches we had explored, so I guess other people liked it too. I have to say this wasn’t my favorite thing about Dunedin, but it was much cooler than I anticipated it to be.

Along with this, Dunedin had a really nice freedom camping spot a short walk from town. We stayed there on a Saturday night when the New Zealand All Blacks vs Britain rugby match was on. The game was played at the stadium in town, but we just caught it at a couple different bars in the downtown area. The atmosphere was cool and rugby was fun to watch even if we were a little lost on the rules. Taylor and I also hit up the farmers market, something we’ve been trying to do in each new city we travel to. All in all, it’s fun to explore the cities themselves, alongside all of the nature around.