I now live in the south of New Zealand, in Dunedin, a town with many Scottish names and a prominent statue of Robert Burns. Half an hour's drive westwards sits the eastern edge of Central Otago, a fragmented schist plateau whose summits reach 1600 metres: rock-studded, often arid, disorderly, desolate, unfrequented. A treeless emptiness that goes on and on. Discoverable. In summer, the dun plateaus and hillsides dry up under stifling northwesterlies. In winter they whiten under biting southerlies. In shady hollows, snow and cold hands can linger all year. Further west, beyond Central Otago, lie the Southern Alps, just a four-hour drive from here on lonely roads.
Pete McDonald
26 Grandview Crescent
Opoho
DUNEDIN, 9010
New Zealand
Phone +64 3 4738198
Email pete.mcd@vodafone.co.nz
