The Scottish sounding city of Dunedin – Gaelic for Edinburgh - is South Island’s second city, after Christchurch, and a major tourist draw. It is different to most other New Zealand cities, with its grand architecture of yesteryear and sophisticated feel, and boasts an incredible setting between rolling hills and the striking Otago coastline.

The old city lies on the South Island’s south-eastern corner, a couple of hundred miles south of Christchurch and within each of Queenstown, and is built around the pretty Otago Harbour. Undeniably Scottish, although discovered by Englishman James Cook, Dunedin is best visited in the summer months due to its southerly location which brings with it a chill factor.

Dunedin’s obvious wealth seen in its streets and buildings originally came from the gold rush of the 1860s. Visitors are often surprised to see many well-preserved Victorian, Edwardian, and neo-Gothic buildings, as well as numerous lavish homes dotted around the city.

Dunedin’s city centre is nice and compact and thus easy to get about on foot. One of its best features is its shopping and bustling café scene which are best sampled in the Octagon (city centre), and around Moray place and High street. Dunedin also has a university, meaning a plethora of wine bars and pubs.

From the Octagon, many of Dunedin’s best attractions are within easy reach, including the superb Dunedin Public Art Gallery, the equally impressive Otago Settlers Museum and the chocolate haven of Cadbury World. Other must-see sights in and around Dunedin include the Otakou Marae, for a spot of Maori culture; New Zealand’s only castle, Larnach Castle; and Speight’s Brewery.

Farther afield is the Taiaroa Royal Albatross Colony, the only mainland albatross colony in the world; the beautifully-located yellow-eyed penguin colony of Penguin Place; Glenfalloch Woodland Garden and the curious Organ Pipes.

There are also many things to do in Dunedin to keep kids happy, such as the ride on the Taieri Gorge Railway, with its long tunnels and viaducts, or a rigorous walk up Baldwin street (the world’s steepest residential street). Additionally, there are activities such as surfing, sea kayaking and golfing.

Dunedin also enjoys numerous fun festivals and events that visitors of all ages can get in on. The Dunedin Summer Festival is the biggest festival of the year and features themed-activities and a look at what makes Dunedin tick. The arts are also prominent in Dunedin with lots of arts-related festivals throughout the year and several galleries in town.

For nightlife, Dunedin has pubs and bars galore as well as a well established boutique casino and the impressive Fortune Theatre right in the town centre.

Accommodation options in Dunedin are very good and prices reasonable. Everything from mid-range motels to three and four-star hotels and fine resorts located along the Otago coast, around the harbour and in the countryside are available.

It is always worth booking hotels in Dunedin ahead of time no matter what time of year you plan on visiting, as goings on at the University of Otago and many big festivals in the city can see the entire town booked up. In addition to the convenience of booking online comes the bonus of significant savings, where prices can be as low as half when compared with walk-in rates or when booking direct with a hotel.

Although Dunedin has a remote location on the South Island’s southeast coast, and is a fair way from Christchurch, getting here is not a problem owing to Dunedin’s international airport, excellent bus connections, rail access and uncongested southern roads.

The airport is unfortunately quite a way out of town due to the hilly terrain of the region, but good transfer options see shuttle buses and taxis providing direct access to the city. May people choose to fly to Christchurch and then that the bus or drive from here with some good deals on hire cars available online.

The Maori were in the Dunedin area around the 11^th century and a campsite at Kaikai's Beach, near Otago Heads, lends evidence to this. There are many moa hunter sites in and around Dunedin, several of which were substantial and permanently occupied, especially in the 14^th century.

Later, fortified settlements known as ‘pa’ were built, including the Pukekura at Taiaroa Head in the mid-1600s. There was also a settlement in now central Dunedin (Ōtepoti) which was occupied as late as the 1820s.

Europeans arrived in the form of the indefatigable Captain James Cook in early 1770. The great English navigator named Cape Saunders on the Otago peninsula and Saddle Hill and reported numerous seals and penguins in the vicinity. This eventually led to sealers moving in and the sealing industry being established from the early 19^th century.

Naturally, the Maoris were not happy that white men had come to their land and starting taking the seals. A feud between sealers and Maori ensued and for more than 10 years there was unrest in the area, sparked by an incident at Otago Harbour in 1810. Despite the general commotion, William Tucker settled here in 1815 and permanent European occupation happened after the Weller brothers founded a whaling station on the Otago Harbour in 1831.

It was only running a few years before Otago Harbour became an international whaling port, while at the same time epidemics introduced by the white settlers ripped through the local Maori population and drastically reduced their numbers.

The first mission station of the South Island was set up by Johnny Jones in 1840, at Waikouaiti, as was a large farming settlement. During the same decade, the Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland founded Dunedin in 1848 as the main town of its Scottish settlement at the head of Otago Harbour. It was at this time that Dunedin gained its title, with Dunedin being the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh - Dùn Èideann.

It was thus decided that the powers that be would try to emulate the look of Edinburgh. Charles Kettle, the city's surveyor, produced a 'Romantic' design which was of course totally alien to the region but grand nonetheless. The vision worked to a certain extent, although the hilly landscape made for tough building and much of the plans never panned out. At this time, Captain William Cargill became the secular leader and poet Robert Burns’ nephew, Reverend Thomas Burns, was the spiritual guide.

A few years later in 1852, Dunedin became capital of Otago province, which covered the entire country from the Waitaki south. Ten years later, gold was discovered southwest of Dunedin at Gabriel's Gully, which led to a huge jump in population numbers, making Dunedin New Zealand's main city by 1865. The majority of the new immigrants were from Ireland, Italy, Germany, France, and China. Numerous Jewish also settled the area.

The next big feather in Dunedin’s cap was the founding of the University of Otago in 1869, New Zealand’s oldest university. Over the next 70 years or so, Dunedin saw much development with cable trams, the setting up of institutions and businesses, New Zealand's first daily newspaper, a medical school, and an art school. It was also at this time that the Dunedin Public Art Gallery was established, while an architectural explosion saw many fine buildings appear including Knox Church, RA Lawson's First Church of Otago, Dunedin Railway Station and Olveston House.

Despite all of this, Dunedin was overtaken by New Zealand’s cities of the north when the ‘drift north’ saw much migration to the northern centres - chiefly to Wellington and Auckland.

Today, Dunedin is a major stopping off point on tours of the South Island by tourists who come for its laid-back charm and fine setting. It now has its own international airport with regular flights from Sydney and Brisbane, and is renowned in the world of wildlife conservation for its important penguin and albatross colonies.

With its positioning in the southern hemisphere along with Australia, New Zealand sees Christmas time during the European summer and winters in July and August. Thus the North Island is generally warmer than the South Island, and Dunedin’s low latitude makes it colder than most cities in the country.

The best time to visit Dunedin is somewhere between January and April when the weather is at its warmest, although its positioning in the east means that it rarely sees severe weather, even in the height of winter. Daytime temperatures in the summer can reach in excess of 30°C, while winter lows see an average of around 10°C in June.

February is the hottest month and the busiest time to be here when hotels, guesthouses and tours need to be booked well in advance. Expect frosty mornings and the occasional snow flurry in June and pack accordingly.