Day 3 – The Otago Peninsula

So for those of you who don’t already know, Dunedin is quite cold in August, minus 5 at 7 am. Lucky I didn’t go outside until nine, by which time it had crossed into positives. We did our usual rug-up and walked down the road to find a hot breakfast, and found a good one about 2 blocks from the apartment. It was slightly educational, because when Deb confessed to being fussy after ordering a Chai Latte on almond milk the waiter corrected me that she was not fussy, but ‘particular’. I don’t have to expand on the pronunciation… right?.

After the ice melted yesterday, I moved the car to our assigned car park, not really thinking that a dry, steep driveway would present any problems. It seems I was wrong, but after 3 attempts I finally convinced our high quality rental to go up hill without spinning wheels and going backwards. Once out of the driveway, we drove to Larnach Castle, New Zealand’s only castle, they tell us. With the recent snowfalls there was still plenty of snow in the grounds. 

So the castle was built in the late 1800s, but was purchased in 1967 and has been restored gradually since then. It is a fine example of Victorian decoration and design. There is a ballroom attached, where Deb attended a University ball a few years ago. It now serves as Tea Rooms

From there we drove down the Otago Peninsula to the Royal Albatross rookery. This is now a naturally plentiful part of the world frequented by whales, dolphins, seals and all the birds. It was once gun emplacements to defend New Zealand from Russian invaders. Unfortunately, the Russian ship that was off shore at the time had more weaponry than New Zealand at this time. Undiscouraged, by such things, 4 gun emplacements were installed, the Russians went away, so the area was taken over as bird rookeries. The Albatross rookery is completely fenced off so cats, ferrets, stoats and people can’t interfere. We took a tour and viewed the Albatross chicks and the adults coming in to feed them.

The views back up the Otago Harbour are stunning, which the photos don’t really do justice to…. but anyway here’s one.

For some years Deb has been contending that Dunedin has magnificent beaches, to which my response has always been ‘who would go in the water?’ The answer is surfers wearing wetsuits! Nonetheless, more beautiful New Zealand coastline.

One last stop for the rugby faithful… that would be me 🙂

Then it was back to the apartment for a recharge before rugging up to head to the nearest Italian restaurant, innovatively named ‘Zuccini Brothers’. The food was excellent and the cheeky Central Otago Pinot Noir set the scene for our drive to Alexandra tomorrow. I’ve checked metservice.com and all the roads are open.

Until tomorrow…