Day 8 – Monday 6 April
“The Camp” now known as Lanarch Castle on the nearby Otago Peninsula was the destination this morning & after around half an hour drive up, some fairly twisty high roads, we arrived. Lanarch Castle was the residence of a wealthy Australian banker, William Lanarch. Starting in 1871 it took 200 workmen 3 years to build the stone walled structure enough to move into then it took another 12 years for the craftsmen to complete the interior. Having seen the intricate detail inside I can understand why. The derelict & abandoned building was in a very sad state of neglect & dilapidation when purchased by the Barker family in 1967 & they have spent many years restoring the castle. The work they have done is a credit to them.
The cafe situated in the old ballroom (finished 1887) opened just as we arrived at 9.30 so we started out with breakfast before exploring the castle. The rooms are decorated with period furniture with a lot of the original furniture either purchased from auction sales, on loan from the Otago Museum or have been donated by descendants of William Lanarch. The wood panelling & carving is exceptional, along with the fine plasterwork & custom built furniture. The ceiling in the main foyer took three men 6 ½ years to carve. One interesting feature upstairs is a one ton bath carved from marble, a copy of a bath found in the ruins of Herculaneum, Italy. A very narrow spiral stone staircase leads from the top floor onto the roof battlements offering superb views along Otago Harbour & out the heads. The original open verandahs around the 1st floor were enclosed in glass by William Lanarch, being on top of a hill it is very windy & this far south of the equator it also fairly cool.
We also explored the gardens around the castle before we headed off further up the Otago Peninsular, past the old lime kilns then driving around Hoopers Inlet & Papanui Inlet. Both these inlets are havens for waterbirds as they are very shallow & today the tide was out when we drove around so there was hardly any water in sight. We saw lots of Paradise ducks, Spoonbills, Stilts & other wading birds. We drove back along the waterside of Otago Harbour to Dunedin & enjoyed the scenery & water views. We had a brief stop at the Dunedin Railway Station, a magnificent large stone building, before returning to our motel.
A brief snack then we wandered back into town, for a little bit of retail therapy, bought a scarf as it is so cold & windy. Then back to the motel to do some washing. Dinner at the closest restaurant tonight as rain is threatening. We had a few drops on us earlier on the walk back from the city.
Dunedin is a beautiful big city with lots of lovely old buildings, harbour, shops & restaurants/cafes/bars. The tourists & back packers are not so prevalent like in Queenstown, but you see a lot of Uni students because of the University of Otago located here. Dunedin is the southernmost city we are visiting in New Zealand, the Latitude of Dunedin is around 100~200km south of the most southern part of Tasmania.