From Castles to Lakes

Morning in Dunedin was cloudy, cool and wet from overnight rains that had passed through. We took our time getting underway and decided that we’d make a quick stop at the Otago Museum again. It was on the way and I had wanted to catch a few things we’d missed the day before. What we’d missed was called the Animal Attic and it’s a strange and vast collection of animals that had been part of the museum since the early 1900s. It was a little creepy in an interesting way but I learned about some animals that I didn’t know about before.


We got back on route to our main destination for the day which was New Zealand’s only castle out on the Otago Peninsula. The drive over was quite picturesque with beautiful vistas alternating on either side of the land mass as we drove around curves. The end destination was Larnachs Castle, which was built in the late 1800s by William Larnach to impress his wife. Apparently, she wasn’t. It was pretty in many ways with the Gothic stylings that were all the rage in that area back then in Southern New Zealand. However, it had a very strange layout, with the staircase spiraling up from the center and various sized rooms stacked up around it. The geometric tiled floors encircling the staircase sagged inward from not having proper support. Though, the best part was winding up the tiny staircase of the tower to be treated with 360 views of the peninsula and the waters that encompassed it.

Something I found strange about the experience within the castle was that you weren’t taken on a tour, but instead just given lots of pamphlets and directed to a room where you could read the history and watch a little video. Then, you could wander around the castle without any tour guide supervision, but strictly requested to not take any photography or videos. Though, without supervision, we saw many people sit in chairs, open drawers and fiddle with various, antique furnishings. However, the highlight of the whole experience was walking around the gardens on the castle grounds with were filled with interesting succulents and beautiful flowers. I’ve become enamored with a particularly large succulent that I wish I could give out how to grow back home. While we were out there, we could hear several tui birds calling to each other and eventually we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some hopping around the trees.

Around 2pm we walked back to our car and decided it had gotten too late to go see the Royal Albatross Centre. It was probably another 30 mins in the opposite direction we wanted to ultimately go today and there was no guarantee we’d see any flying at this time of the year. Plus, we were headed to Te Anau this evening, which was on the other side of the South Island. It was the second longest drive of the trip at a projected 3 hours and 49mins. So, we hopped back into the car and started our long drive. About an hour inward, we grabbed something to eat in a small town called Barclutha, which was also the southernmost point we’d been to on this trip, but we didn’t realize it until later. It was definitely the southernmost point I’ve ever been to but Jacob’s not certain it was for him.


The first half of the drive was mostly flatter farmland with lots of little towns but then the second half became more interesting with distant, rolling green hills giving way to a sea of tussock grasses. We didn’t end up taking too many pictures on the way over, likely because it was difficult to see spots where we could pull over with the sun lying low on the horizon and shining directly in our faces. However, we made it to beautiful, lakeside Te Anau with New Zealand’s second deepest lake a little after 6pm and Jacob promptly found us some place to stay within walking distance of the main drag. We capped off our day with a lovely dinner of fish and chips for Jacob and a Moroccan lamb salad for me at the Fat Duck.