Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Dunedin

Dunedin (Dec 3, 2016)

Dec 3 (Sat) - Dunedin

            This morning we woke up around 5 AM to a beautiful New Zealand sunrise.
New Zealand sunrise
After breakfast we gathered what we needed for our first New Zealand excursion. We are in Dunedin (done-knee-done), a city settled by the Scottish. Our tour bus passed through Dunedin on the way to the Otago Peninsula.
Tooth sculptures in Dunedin
Otago Peninsula, about 15 miles long,  provides scenic coastlines, rare wildlife, and several attractions.
Otago Peninsula
The first place we went to was "Natures Wonders", a large farm area dedicated to preserving wildlife in its natural habitat. We went in land rovers to see the wildlife.
Natures Wonders
We saw seals with baby seals. They were just out on the rocks. We then saw some baby penguins in nests. They are hidden in nests among the foliage to protect them from predators. We were able to peak into a few nests.
Seal on the rocks
Sheep at Natures Wonders
We then went to Glenfalloch (Gaelic for hidden glen) Woodland Gardens, a homestead built in 1871. It has a tearoom where we had lamb for lunch. They also had a beautiful garden.
Glenfalloch Gardens tearoom
Three gardeners
Over the bridge
Tall flowers
Just riding from one site to another on the peninsula is interesting.
Overgrown house
We next went to Larch Castle, New Zealand's only castle. It is not really a castle (no royalty here), but was built by a Scottish businessman patterned after baronial castles in Scotland. It was a beautiful structure, with intercut carving for the trim. The family who owned it had a lot of tragedy.

Larch Castle
Parlor in the Castle
We walked through the gardens. It rained a little while we were inside. It cleared up when we came out.
A walk through the garden
Couple under the canapé 
Through the tunnel
She likes wisteria
Reflection pond
 We returned to Dunedin for a few more stops. We were to go to the Cadbury chocolate factory, but they were closed by the time we got there so we went to a grocery store to let everybody load up on chocolate. It ends up that chocolate (and most of the other candy) in New Zealand is not gluten-free. So much for moving to New Zealand.

Cadbury chocolate factory
We stopped by the Dunedin Railway Station, one of New Zealand's best historic buildings for architecture. It was raining and we had little time, but it was good to see the building.

Dunedin Railway Station
Railway architecture
Floor tile inside the station
On the train platform

When we got back to the ship it was raining hard and we got soaked. We fortunately were able to return to the room before going to dinner.

To be continued:

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