Dunedin, New Zealand

It’s a ritual I bet travelers other than us observe: buying the grand kids a little something on the last day of the trip. Except in our case it gets to be like the Cold War arms race: continual escalation of gifts to make sure each grand kid gets his or her equal share. We reach a state of Mutually Assured Gifting.

“If we buy that for Reagan we’ll have to find something for Esme to make it equal.”

“But if we buy that for Esme we’ll have to get something else for Griffin.”

“But now Carter needs something more.”

And so on.

Maybe we should stick with one of those “Grandma and Grandpa went to Florida and all I got was this stinkin’ tee shirt” tee shirts for each kid and call it quits. But what fun is that?

We spent most of the morning touring the Octagon (central square) and surrounding central city district of Dunedin. And what a nice town it is. I’d have to say that Dunedin is the nicest looking town we’ve seen in New Zealand. It has retained a lot of its 19th and 20th century English/Scottish architecture in the form of churches, the railroad station and government buildings. Plus, the newer buildings seem to fit in nicely with the old. Dunedin is built on the side of a hill or two which adds to the charm. Overall, it’s a great feel, pleasing to the eye.

We had lunch at a funky cafe downtown and then got in the car for our last sightseeing drive. Our objective: the Otago Peninsula, a land mass attached to the city proper. Driving time from downtown to the far end is about 45 minutes. Larnach Castle was the main attraction; the Royal Albatross Center and the Blue Penguins were “if we have time” stops.

I don’t know why, but when I looked at the Otago Peninsula on the map back home in New Hampshire I envisioned a flat, low-lying peninsula, like Long Island, maybe. Couldn’t have been more wrong. The scenic route follows the north coast of the peninsula, and I mean it follows it really close. Sheer walls on the inside and narrow shoulders on the water side and swerving curves every fifty meters or so made for interesting driving, especially when meeting a gigantic tour bus.

By the way, the Princess Line cruise boat was in port today and so the streets were crammed with old folks with blue ID tags. It made us feel superior to be “independent travelers” rather than members of the sheep herd.

We’re not the only ones to spoil them rotten. William James Mudie Larnach built what he called “The Camp” but which the popular press dubbed “The larch Castle” for his wife Eliza. She came from a rich family; he apparently married above his station in life. It is indeed a formidable looking structure high on a bluff overlooking the bay and Dunedin.

Larch was an Australian by birth but was an entrepreneur and banker in New Zealand during its British period during the reign of Queen Victoria. He speculated on land, was active in mining and farming and who knows what else. Frequently his investments were highly leveraged with debt. He made a lot of money with his land holdings but lost money in banking. He was also quite active in politics.

Long story short, he was on the brink of bankruptcy, his honor was called into question because of his business dealings and he, mistakenly, voted on a banking bill involving his own bank. For whatever reason, he locked himself in a committee room at Parliament and shot himself with his revolver. A tragic story, to be sure, but the castle and his story is illustrative of what economic and political life was like in New Zealand in the 19th century.

We finished at the Castle around 4 PM and so had time to do Albatrosses and Penguins before hanging up our tourist spurs. Off we went on the twisty-winding shore road a few kilometers before I looked down at the gas (sorry, petrol) Gauge: darn near empty. A quick google search showed no petrol stations on the Peninsula so we did a 180, headed for town, got gas and set out once more.

This time we figured we’d be smart and take the inland route, the one suggested by the GPS, rather than the twisty-winding coastal road. Unfortunately, the inland road was even more twisty-winding and was also narrower and went up to dizzying heights before plunging back to sea level. Probably the scariest road we’ve encountered in New Zealand.

By the time we reached the Albatross center it was 6 PM, the prospects for Albatross viewing were looking sketchy and penguins wouldn’t appear until 8:30. So back we went this time via the shore route, which seemed pretty tame in comparison.

Our final dinner was a lamb shank for each, wine for Judy and a lager for me. As I posted on Facebook, we ate our final dinner at an Irish pub in a Scottish-themed city in New Zealand watching the All Blacks play Australia on TV. It’s a cosmopolitan world in which we live.

Judy’s packing our bags as I type. Tomorrow at 2:40 our flight leaves Dunedin for Auckland, connecting to flights to San Francisco and Boston. That’s an 8:40 PM departure, Saturday, Eastern time. We arrive in Boston at 9:51 PM Sunday, a cool 25 hours of traveling. Piece of cake.

Thanks to everyone for following along and especially for all the nice comments as we’ve traveled. It really helps on a long trip like this to hear from folks back home. Now, figure out where you’d like to go and sign us up to come along – we’re always up for an adventure!

I’ll send out a message when we’re home to let you know we got there OK but no more pontificating, I promise!