Dunedin is a UNESCO Creative City with a rich arts history. In 2014, artists were invited to paint murals on ten city walls. The idea has taken off, and there are now over 50 wall murals around Dunedin. One of the local tourist attractions is the Dunedin Street Art Trail. For those who want to learn more about this, see:

https://www.dunedinnz.com/insiders/the-insiders-guide-to-the-dunedin-street-art-trail

This is probably a good point to warn you that this post is going to be very photo-heavy. I’ll provide context where I can, but some of the pictures are just cool pictures and I couldn’t help myself.

As I said, there is a lot of street art in Dunedin. We even noticed some of it on our drive into town. But as we went in search of the start of the trail, we had trouble finding our way. It’s almost as if we’ve lost our ability to navigate with paper maps. At least some of us … not mentioning anyone in particular here, but… it’s me…

We were looking for No Name Alley, which is perhaps not the clearest name, but finally we found it, and … well, see for yourself.

This had one of the larger, and more impressive murals, covering two full walls of the building.

This next picture is cool for a few reasons. It is very large, very realistic, and almost has a 3-D effect. But it is also on the side of a commercial building, and they use the space for business. At first I thought the truck detracted from the effect, but in the end I decided I liked it. The mural is practical, accessible, and open for everyone to enjoy as they go about their daily business. It also gives you an idea of the scale.

Now I’m going to show you a lot of murals without much explanation, because I can.

Sometimes other other media were added to the murals.

The sculptures look exactly like the real thing, and have about the same intelligence.

Some of the walls are a mostly blank canvas, but others have pipes and vents. Some murals work around these obstructions, while others actively incorporate them into the mural. I like the way this yellow submarine incorporates the vent.

There were so many murals that eventually we were incorporated into the picture. This one shows Jan photographing the mural on the opposite wall.

And in this one, it looks like I’m being sprayed with paint.

A lot of the pictures had social commentary messages.

I’m guessing that a local group opposed a plan to demolish this building. In any case, the full message on the iron grills (in case you can’t read it from the photo) is: “We have re-used these buildings, having battled the might of foes. They tried rules and wealth, we applied tools and self, or so this story goes.” I like it.

I spotted this next mural on the way to dinner. A very powerful image that highlights New Zealand native species that have gone extinct in the last thousand years.

Here is a larger image of the extinctions.

There were also murals with humorous themes.

This next one shows how the boundary between mural art and true graffiti begins to blur here. But it does it in a way that doesn’t deface the art, but is respectful and in many ways complements it. I like that too.

We ended the day with a lovely dinner at the Eureka Cafe where we played “name that tune” trying to identify the classic rock playing in the cafe. It took us back to our trip to Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island, where we did exactly the same thing. Thank God for Shazam!

I’ll close with a picture of unusual berries along the street, because … that’s what I do.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Christchurch.