Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula

January 23.24, 2009

With the City Centre nicely confined, and the farmlands visible around the water, Otago Harbour has to be one of the most beautiful in the world. Big ships can only get part of the way in (through an incredibly narrow headlands) and maybe that is the reason it has kept its charm.

After driving the water level lower road to the end of the Otago peninsula in the hopes of seeing a Royal Albatross we took the high road back. Now there is a Royal Albatross colony at the end of the peninsula but the price of $39/person was a little out of our range. (What a shame for a country with so many free museums to hold the birds up for ransom like that).

Anyway, we did get close to a fur seal on the rocks and I did catch a couple of glimpses of the big birds as they soared over cliffs. Out around the “narrows” leading into the harbour was the strangest fog bank I have ever seen. It was thick enough to seriously delay one of the cruse ships from coming in on time but it was limited just to a specific area. It also stayed there for the whole day. Bizarre.

Stopped at NZ’s only “castle”. Really just a big mansion but it and the gardens had been restored. It wasn’t worth the $25/person for the castle tour but the $10/person just to wander around the grounds was a good price. For those of you who have been to Casa Loma in Toronto it has a history sort of like that except that this guy had three wives and …. never mind.

The real fun part was taking a number of the single (and I mean single lane) gravel roads that cover the other side of the peninsula. The views of beaches, salt flats and bays are really tremendous and well worth the extra driving. The roads are frequently steep and we did have one close call with another car on a blind curve (must have been his fault because he didn’t curse at me) but the areas are windswept and seem very remote for all their proximity to the town.

The next day was strictly walking as we went down the long hill to the historic railway station. Since it is, reputedly, the most photographed building in NZ we didn’t take a picture of it but enjoyed it nonetheless. Had breakfast at the Farmer’s Market there (I recommend the Bacon Buttie) from a stall and then went on a walking tour of the downtown and shopping areas. Visited the museum (once again a very good one and free to boot) and tried to avoid all the American tourists in town from the cruise ship.

Had an overpriced beer at a side walk café in the Octagon, which is the circle like plaza/park that is the heart of the city. Since the temperature was a little cooler than yesterdays 27C (80F) the hill back up wasn’t as bad. Had a nice talk with one of the hostel owners about her four month old baby (she was from Chicago) who wasn’t wearing a diaper. Some kind of theory about reading the baby’s feelings and knowing when it was going to “go”. Sounded dangerous to us but then again there weren’t any accidents as we were sitting there.

On the road again tomorrow.