One of the NBA's biggest superstars took in the sights of "one of the world's great small cities'' yesterday.
Staff at Dunedin Railways were shocked to see 2.29m tall former NBA player Yao Ming taking tourist snaps with his family in a carriage parked at the Dunedin Railway Station about 11am.
Dunedin Railways office assistant Belinda Knox said the former Houston Rockets player was immediately recognisable.
"I asked him if we could get a photo and he said 'Yeah' and that's all I got out of him,'' she said.
The giant basketballer was humble and reserved, but caused quite a stir among staff.
"He was here having a look around for about 20 minutes or so,'' she said.
He was taking photos with his wife and parents and was on his way to Christchurch to leave the country, she said.
Despite having 194,000 followers on Twitter, no other evidence of his time in New Zealand made its way to social media yesterday.
Ming played more than 500 games for the Houston Rockets from 2002 to 2011 and was an eight-time NBA All Star.
Earlier this year, he was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame alongside fellow giant Shaquille O'Neal and one-time NBA finalist Allen Iverson.
