Welcome to our journey around New Zealand. You will see from the map that the first region we are staying in is on the east of the South Island. We actually started our journey in Christchurch, which is the biggest city on the South Island. And that got me thinking about cities. Then we moved on to Dunedin and I thought some more. You see Christchurch and Dunedin are so very different and yet they are in the same country, about 300 kilometres apart and were founded about the same time. So what makes them different. I think before you can really look at that sort of thing you need to understand how cities happen and indeed what is a city. All over the world people live in villages, towns or cities. What makes a city in one country may not be the same as in another country. But, in general, cities are the biggest centres of population in a country and we will stick with that definition.

Cities can grow up for several reasons. They can be carefully planned and in doing that the planners will take many things into account. Or cities can just happen when two or more towns spread out and eventually become one. Some cities date back thousand of years and to some degree they can have a disadvantage over new cities. If your city was planned when there were no cars then the road system may not be that good. Of course it will have been updated over the years but horses and carts didn't need such wide roads and so buildings may block the way. In some countries in the world old cities have been destroyed by fighting and war and so when they have been rebuilt, the planners have been able to take into account modern needs.

New Zealand is interesting because there were no cities at all there until the European settlers came in the mid 1800's about 180 years ago. Both Christchurch and Dunedin were built close to the sea. That was very usual in those days as everything you wanted had to brought by boat and they tend to stop when the sea ends. Both started life in about the 1850's although the area had been settled by the Maori for may years before this. Both came about for similar reasons. Christchurch was set up as an English town and it was designed to be a respectable place where the Church of England religion would dominate. The first pilgrims who came in 1850 had to have a form signed by their local vicar in England to say they were sober, honest, industrious and that the family were one of the most respected in their parish. As a result churches can be seen all over Christchurch and the name itself is a bit of a give away. 800 people arrived in those first ships and five years later there were over 3,500 living there. And even today there are plenty of green spaces in the centre of the town.

Dunedin came about as a city when 300 Presbyterian settlers from Scotland, led by Captain William Cargill, landed in 1848. Again they came to further their religious views away from their homeland. Dunedin had in fact been home to whalers and sealers before that and even earlier was an area where nomadic Maori moved around. These people were the moa hunters. Dunedin was a great place to settle because it had a fantastic natural harbour. The great explorer Captain Cook actually missed the entrance when he sailed around New Zealand in 1770. Dunedin's population grew from those 300 first settlers to about 12,000 by 1860.

Them something happened to change Dunedin forever. Someone found gold in the hills and rivers around Dunedin. The population grew from 12,000 to 60,000. 35,000 of those were immigrant gold seekers lured by the thought of making a quick fortune. Some did but their arrival transformed Dunedin. These people needed a life outside of panning for gold and so casinos and pubs were built. Alongside the actual gold diggers came businessmen who also saw the way to financial success and for a time in the 1860's Dunedin became the most prosperous town in New Zealand. But, as with other places around the world built on an exhaustible resource things changed when the gold ran out. By the way this sort of thing still happens today. Do you think countries where the wealth is built on oil supplies will still be so rich if the oil runs out or, even worse for them, we find an alternative supply?

So, why are the two cities so different? Location is one reason. Christchurch is built on fairly flat land. It is a town with streets in a grid form. In other words the street map looks a bit like a sheet of graph paper with roads either going north/south or east/west. The planners were also careful to keep some green spaces in the centre of the town to make it seem and look more pleasant and they were helped by the river that runs through it. Dunedin, on the other hand, is built on very hilly land except close to the harbour shore where the land is flat and has been reclaimed from the sea in some places. Some of the streets are indeed very steep and we both wondered what it was like to try and walk down them when it is icy. Dunedin, despite having the high hills all around, has not gone down the route of tall skyscraper buildings that other cities have done. Christchurch has a few taller buildings but not that many.

There can be several reasons for this and to understand it you need to think what does a city need to provide. Most people who live in a city actually live just outside in what is called suburbs. They will then go to the city for work or shopping or entertainment. This is what the city must provide if it is to cater for these people. So these big buildings will probably be office blocks. Of course some may be apartments for people who do not wish to live outside. There is, in many cases only a certain amount of space on the land and so if you need more you have to go upwards and not outwards. Funnily enough you would think it might be harder to spread outwards in Dunedin, with all the hills, but they seem to manage this. What is more there are about 4 times as many people living in Christchurch than in Dunedin so that is another factor. And if people are living outside you need a way to get them in quickly and efficiently. In many countries you will find a rail system or a metro but neither of these two cities have this. People have to rely on the roads either in their cars or buses, hence the importance of a good road system. But one thing that seems common to both places is that the planners have taken into account the possibility of rainfall while out shopping. Many streets in New Zealand have a cover over part of the pavement so you can walk in the dry even when it rains.