Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula

• breakfast in the hotel was interesting, as half-a-dozen bishops wandered in an out while we were eating, obviously in town for the consecration; none of them Victoria Matthews

Drive Around Otago Peninsula

• after breakfast we headed out for a drive around the Otago peninsula, which forms the south side of a long, fairly narrow bay which forms Dunedin Harbour
• we opted to drive around counter-clockwise, which turned out to be a wise choice; doing so allowed us to hug the "land" side of the road, rather than being on the "water" side
• this is definitely a "white knuckle" drive no matter which way around you go, but at least going this way, if you got squeezed off the side of the road by the frequently large trucks and busses coming the other way, you'd be in a ditch or field, or take the side of the car off on one of the not infrequent cliff faces; going off the road the other side would generally get you onto a steep downhill slope, at best, or a steep drop-off, aka cliff, with ocean at the bottom
• most New Zealand roads, and this one definitely, were designed for British cars of the 1950s, but are now carrying vehicles  built in the 21st century; thus if a full-sized car like a Camry (which we were in) meets a modern touring bus coming the other way, there isn't much room to spare
• barriers to leaving the road are non-existent; in a lot of places there are low wire fences, top maybe 2 feet off the ground with two wires running between very thin posts - these are not there to stop cars from going off the road, they are there to stop sheep from going on the road!
• that's the down side, the up side is that there are often breath-taking views (at least for the passenger, the driver is too busy negotiating the road and many curves to look much - as often happened on this trip, June was taking pictures out the window so that later I could see what I had missed!
• we did a side trip to Sandymount, which involved going off the paved road onto exactly what the name implies, a very large sand mount, overgrown with scruffy prairie grasses, as far a a non-four-wheel drive car was safe to take, from which point there were several hiking paths with short walks to look-outs from which one could see the coastal scenery with the South Pacific Ocean as the background - again, breath-taking views
• from the heights of Sanymount we returned to the "main" = paved road, and continued around the peninsula, with the road alternating between high above the ocean to at sea level
• eventually one comes to a fork in the road, with the main road turning back towards Dunedin, and a narrow track going towards the Royal Albatross Centre, which we took

Royal Albatross Centre & About Albatross

• the Royal Albatross Centre is on Taiaroa Head, which is the end of the Otago peninsula
• it is one of only three world-wide royal albatross breeding colonies, and the only one accessible by car (the other two are in the Chatham Islands, and on Enderby Island, a part of the Auckland Islands which are owned by New Zealand, but are well south of South Island and part of sub-Antarctica)
• the Chatham Island colony is by far the largest, with more than 6000 breeding pairs, while Taiaroa Head has a few more than 20 breeding pairs (Enderby Island's numbers are not known)
• because of the necessity of not disturbing the breeding birds, the parking lot is well away from the breeding grounds, and there is an orientation centre well away also
• in the orientation centre, besides the usual amenities, is a display of material about albatrosses, including a complete skeleton of an adult bird, articulated
• prior to going into the observation part of the visit, one is shown a movie and given an orientation talk about these remarkable bird
• an adult albatross can have a wing span of more than 7 metres, and is a superbly designed machine for flying enormous distances completely away from land
• a breeding pair (albatross generally mate for life) lays a single egg, which both take turns hatching while the other flies out to sea to feed themselves and bring back food for their mate
• the eggs are about the size of a football, laid in October or November, and take about 80 days to hatch
• Once hatched, both parents take turn feeding the chick, using a stomach oil that is very rich and high in energy
• the chicks generally fledge after around 240 days, after which the parents separate and fly out to see for a year 
• once independent, the young birds embark on a world circumnavigation journey that takes about 7 years to complete
• at the end of that time they return to their breeding colony, find a mate, and begin their own breeding life
• their parents also return to the breeding colony after the year at sea, find each other, and breed again (widow/widower birds whose mate does not return generally do not mate again)
• the actual breeding colony is on the other side of a hill from the orientation centre, and to get there one walks through deep trances, deep enough that there is no chance of a bird seeing a human
• the trenches lead into an observation post with windows all around, but not more than 2 feet high, mirrored, so that again the birds cannot see humans
• a number of nests are directly visible from the windows, and good quality binoculars are chained at regular intervals along the windows so that one can get a good view
• other nests not directly in view can be observed on high quality TV monitors, and there are also models of eggs, and other displays
• altogether, a very well done educational centre about these remarkable birds

Return Drive towards Dunedin

• one has to return from Taiaroa Head by the same road one came in on, but eventually one returns to the coastal road, which now mostly runs at sea level along the north side of the Otago peninsula
• eventually, we chose to go inland, and back to higher ground, to visit Lanarch Castle
• this is a very large mansion, built in the style of a Scottish highland castle, in 1870s and 80s by William Lanarch, a colonial entrepreneur and politician
• the history of the Lanarch family is not a happy one, involving betrayal (a wife that committed adultery with his son) and financial collapse, ending with William killing himself in 1898 in the New Zealand Parliament
• the place fell into severe disrepair, and was eventually bought by the Barker's in 1967, who by their own labour completely restored the place and its gardens to their former magnificence
• it is now a very significant Dunedin tourist attraction, and has earned a number of honours, including the garden being rated as a "Garden of International Significance"
• leaving Lanarch Castle, we headed back down to the coast and towards

Glenfalloch Woodland Garden

• Glenfalloch is Gaelic for "hidden valley"; this is an historical garden, established from 1871, and classified as a Garden of National Significance by the NZ Gardens Trust
• not very far from Dunedin, it apparently has a very fine restaurant within it, which however, and sadly as we were near supper time, was reserved for a wedding reception
• we did however enjoy a leisurely walk through the extensive grounds, which words cannot describe; you will have to look at the pictures
• from there, it was an easy drive back to the hotel, an quick brush-up, and out for supper

Supper

• not far from our hotel was the very large Speight's Brewery, which would not be the direction we would walk in, but the concierge at the hotel suggested the Speight's Ale House as a place we might consider for supper
• good suggestion!
• a place with good food, that however is also quite casual and fun
• we ate on a balcony overlooking the main floor; the food was excellent, and (for Down Under) not too outrageously priced
• perhaps the only issue was that the liquid offerings were beer, beer, and beer (there was some wine on the list, but we had been spoiled by NZ wines elsewhere, and these were not of the 1st rank)
• I, of course, enjoyed the beer selection, June, not so much
• and then, to hotel, to bed, and rest for the next day's drive to Christchurch, along the coast, with planned spots to visit