I've always been interested in rivalries between cities. I grew up in Albury-Wodonga. Wodonga had long been considered poorer and less attractive. But for many years it has been growing faster than Albury and may one day overtake Albury in size and importance.
In the eyes of many, the two cross border cities are regarded as one. But in recent years they've dismantled certain joint initiatives. They now promote themselves separately to tourists and potential new industries and settlers.
Today we're travelling to Oamaru, which is a coastal city of 14,000 inhabitants. It is an hour an a half north of Dunedin, where we've stayed for the past two nights of our tour of part of New Zealand's South Island.
A further hour north on State Highway 1 is Timaru, with a population of 29,000. We were originally booked to stay there because it was more conveniently situated for our drive to Christchurch Airport on Wednesday.
We switched because a few people said that Oamaru was by far the more beautiful of the two cities. These included our west coast B&B host Sue, and my friend and work colleague Nathalie, whom I'll see today for the first time in 26 years. Nathalie lives in Oamaru and told me that there is no question that Oamaru is more beautiful and has the best attractions.
Of course she would say that. Our vegetarian AirBNB host on Friday and Saturday told us that both cities have their attractions. She said we should take what we hear from Timaru's detractors with a grain of salt because they are probably from Oamaru.
As it happens, Timaru is in the Canterbury region, while Oamaru is in Otago. That suggests the rivalry between the two smaller cities is at least partly a reflection of the competition between Canterbury's principal city Christchurch and Otago's Dunedin.
I have been interested in that since my uncle told me years ago that he had a soft spot for Dunedin but didn't think much of Christchurch.
He's proud of his Irish-Catholic heritage and didn't waste any time telling me that the English had a stranglehold on Christchurch. If you were a Catholic and wanted a decent job, you probably wouldn't find one in Christchurch.
Dunedin was a different matter. With its Scottish roots, the people there were much more sympathetic to their fellow Gaelic cousins.
He has lived in Wellington for many years, but was very happy to be living and working here in Dunedin while bringing up his family about 50 years ago. When I called him yesterday, he told me that his office was in the centre of town and that he had a pleasing view down on to the Octagon, which is the focal point of the city.
I read that when the Octagon was first laid out in the original 1846 survey of the city, the English made covert plans to build their Anglican Cathedral right in the Centre of the Octagon. There was a furore when the predominantly Scottish Presbyterian local community found out, and St Paul's Anglican Cathedral was subsequently built, and still stands, at the edge of the Octagon.
It was a different matter in Christchurch, which was conceived as the model English city. Its equivalent to the Octagon is named Cathedral Square after the Anglican ChristChurch Cathedral, which was built as its focal point, though it is barely standing today due to substantial earthquake damage.