Dunedin, the deep south - Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, living history

The bottle of whiskey was a parting gift from a Scottish mother who waved goodbye to her son as he set sail on his epic voyage to Otago, New Zealand on the far side of the world. It was extremely unlikely that the two would ever meet again and so the whiskey was kept as a keep sake to a time past. The son swore that he would only open it on his one hundredth birthday but alas he lived to be just ninety-four. The whiskey remains sealed and is now an exhibit at the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum. Representing one of many tales told about the hardships, adventures and tribulations that the original Dunedin settlers encountered. Interesting exhibits at the Museum include Gold, Gold, Gold a reference to the 1861 gold rush and stories of the Scottish Presbyterians who arrived in 1843 to establish ‘A new Edinburgh’ and found ‘Mud-edin’ – an appropriate nickname for the topography around Dunedin at that time. The most striking exhibition for me though was Across the Ocean Waves which took me inside a replica of the sailing boats used to carry the new settlers. The longest voyage in the world meant surviving cramped conditions with little storage space and even less privacy. In rough seas it must have been terrifying – these were hardy imperious souls these first Otago expats. These remarkable stories captivated me and piqued an interest in discovering more about the heritage of New Zealand’s most southern city.