When I got to the fully ripened age, I needed to make some decisions on where I would make my final home.
Leaving the hillsides to those with more supple joints, I bought my little home in Surrey St, South Dunedin, because it ticked all the boxes.
It was on the flat as we call it here. This means easy walking and biking (if you’re so inclined). No slippery slopes to navigate in winter when driving the car or out walking.
In fact, it is much milder down here on the flat as snow and frost are not the same problem as the higher hill suburbs.
It has a small garden, just enough to grow my favourite flowers and herbs and a few vegetables if I was so inclined, but I’m not. Sun streams in the living areas all day long and, thanks to the many trees and shrubs I have planted, it’s private and sheltered.
Another box I had on my list was the proximity to shops and amenities. I envisioned the day I may have one of the ride-on scooter things I’d seen people using when someone decided they could no longer drive.
So, it seemed sensible to be near all the shops, parks and medical facilities and, of course, a flat track to drive my scooter thingy on.
Being able to do all my shopping without having to drive all over the city for things appealed as it meant I could pop into the post office to send off the grandchildren’s gifts (and return the Temu unwanted junk that I’d been lured into buying).
I had seen the same lovely ladies and a very nice man who helped me stuff the presents into the smallest bag possible. It seemed very lucky to have a post office. I guess South Dunedin people like the human touch and send parcels to grandkids.
Having banks too (which I know some people use regularly) seemed good too. I’ve got technology down to a fine art so, unless I’ve made a killing in pottery sales and have to bank the loot, I stay away from them.
I thought how handy being able to nip down to one of several supermarkets and grab some groceries, a can of paint from Mitre 10 and choose from a multitude of takeaway shops if I couldn’t be bothered cooking.
After living here a while I realised I didn’t have to get into decent clothes or bother with makeup.
No-one cares if I have clay all over me and no mascara on. They still smile and help me get things off the shelves in the supermarket that I can’t reach.
Public transport is essential if I needed to go into, horror of horrors, George St. Someone let loose the idealised youth in the planning department so determined were they to stop me parking near Farmers.
The home I eventually found sits conveniently a manageable short walk between three bus stops. Can you get much better than that?
Not only did I "luck out" on that but everyone knows that South Dunedin has the best bus service in Dunedin due to the large number of people who usually drive scooter thingies when they are not having the biannual dreaded trip to town.
Then there is the grandkids’ amusement. A lovely new park the Dunedin City Council built just around the corner with a mouse wheel. Now they don’t have that in Wellington’s Island Bay playground.
There are huge playing fields to kick a ball in and a 20-minute walk to the beach.
A movie theatre would be great as it’s still a treat to see the big screen, but I guess it’s on the cards?
There are a couple of shops where $10 still gets you some toys and I can buy my reading glasses at a price I can regularly afford to lose them.
In fact, I’ve noticed a lot of new shops opening up, even classy ones. If I do drive to the shops, I can still find a park close to where I want to go. Don’t even think of touching our parking or putting those bike lane obstruction things on the side of our roads, Mr Mayor.
The best thing about South Dunedin though is the people. It’s still a community.
I watch the bedroom curtains of my neighbour over the road. I make sure they’re opened every morning. If not, I ring her daughter to check on her. Being 90 she’s flattered she’s being looked at.
Helping each other in many ways especially in times of emergency. Have you worked out where I’m going with this?
Well, South Dunedin is the largest, highest-density and oldest suburb in New Zealand. It also is the most at risk of flooding in New Zealand.
Our daily paper and the free one love printing articles of the dire situation here. I read them all and they make me sad.
They also make me angry as many of them are written by people who seem to either be parroting stuff from the DCC website or who have not researched all the engineering and geological reports that go back to the early 1960s.
This problem is not new although the DCC folk would have you believe it is.
It’s not climate change or high water tables that are the problem in the Forbury area of South Dunedin where I live. It’s our piping system and the pumping stations — and not just the pumping stations near the coast but the ones in Green Island and further afield.
The council has just released its nine-year plan. Another nine-year plan to wade through and get more consultation on.
What are they consulting us for? We already know what we want. We want to not have a flooding problem.
So, fix the pipes that are falling to bits, add some bigger ones, fix the sewage problem in the hill suburbs so we don’t get their s..., build bigger or better pumping stations, and stop worrying about groundwater levels when you haven’t even got data to prove they are rising.
My home is warm, dry, renovated and I love it. Not a puddle in sight till council pipes can’t cope with more than a day’s heavy rainfall.
So please stop filling us with other suburbs’ wastewater and stop writing waste about South Dunedin.
We are the gem in Dunedin’s crown.
— Lynne Newell is a contented Forbury resident.
