Dunedin, because it's built on a number of hills (I used to think it was seven, like Rome, but it's actually more) has plenty of streets that aren't flat. And some of these almost rival its famous steepest in their steepness.
There's View St, which is right in the middle of the city. It runs between Moray Place and Tennyson St, and is relatively short. Even so, a climb up this street will leave you breathless. Cars park on it in what is known as 'angle-parking', that is, they park with the bonnet or the boot at right angles to the footpath. This requires some degree of skill to get out of the vehicle. For the person on the up side of the car, it's a major effort to push oneself up and out against gravity. For the person in the other seat, there's a considerable danger of falling out of the car and rolling down the hill.
Then there's High Street. Whereas in England a High Street is usually the main street, here in Dunedin, High Street is literally a high street, going up from the main street of the city to the hills in Mornington. It's not very steep, except for one short stretch, but again it's a challenge for someone to walk up. Especially someone lacking in fitness.
In former days a cable car used to go up and down this street, and sometimes, unaccountably, it would stop on the steepest portion, leaving all those in it - or hanging precariously off the straps on the sides - wondering whether they were just about to roll right back down to the bottom.
Talking of cable cars, there was another one which has been removed, and which used to do the Maryhill run. It's a great pity this was taken away as it would have been of considerable interest to the many tourists who now visit the city.
This cable car used to go out the back of the sheds in Mornington township. For a brief moment it sailed along on the flat, and then suddenly it went over the side, and down a very steep piece of street. People sitting with their backs to the direction of travel would have been looking at the sky, if they could see through the roof of the car. People sitting on the slippery polished wooden seats, and facing the direction of travel, were always in danger of sliding off into their opposite neighbors' laps.
There's no chance of this cable car being reinstated, unfortunately, as a homeowner has now built a house directly in the place where the car used to travel.
And one final street to mention, at the moment. This is Lancefield Street, which heads down from the end of Mornington to Caversham. Unlike Baldwin and View streets, this isn't straight. It winds down the hill with some of the sharpest corners to be encountered in the city. Cars traveling up or down and meeting a vehicle coming the opposite way have to slow down to a crawl to negotiate the tight bends. There's no place to pull over - unless you want to pull over and topple off the side of the hill.
