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April 04, 2005

Day 171: Otago Peninsula

I was a nurse to Brad Pitt and he had a rather embarrassing bum infection, so I had to put new bandages on. But at that point I was rudely woken up by the van taking off next to us and blasting fumes into the tent. Bummer.

Then I was dragged out of bed by a very lively Keiron, because the weather was nice and we were going to see the Otago Peninsula. After breakfast, we started driving and saw: rolling green hills, winding roads, steep cliffs and bright blue waters... hmm, I think I'm having a déja vu.

Luckily, the rain had stopped and we were once again blessed by clear blue sky on this Easter Sunday. As we were in a city with a distinct Scottish heritage, Keiron was convinced there had to be castles, and we found one: Larnach Castle, built by William Larnach from 1871 to 1876.

To be honest it was more of a big mansion, but it was a beautiful building, wonderfully restored, with a grand kauri tree staircase, stained glass windows, lots of old furniture, a music room etc. Unfortunately, the house did not make him very happy though. When his third and much younger wife was rumoured to have an affair with his own son, he took his own life and shot himself. The son would later do the same.

The grounds are beautiful, the Barker family, who own and live in it now, having done much to it. There are great views over Dunedin and the bays. In the ballroom, which was added later in honour of one of William's daughters, is now a cafe where we had chocolate chip cookies and tea.

The only downside to it being Easter Sunday was that the crowds had come out, and neither Keiron nor I handle people very well... When we went up to the tower, we were very tempted to throw a particularly annoying brat and her equally annoying mother over the balustrade.

We checked our murderous impulses and drove to the tip of the island, called Taiaroa Head (Pukekura in Maori). It has been a logical point of defense for the harbour so when war threatened, a fort was built. The most famous bit of the fort is the 5 tonnes weighing 'Disappearing Gun' so called because the gun recoils into the gun pit after firing. It was never actually used in a war situation, only in training, as the enemy never quite made it to Dunedin, and later, the gun was obsolete...

The Head used to be quite a big settlement, now a new settler has arrived: the albatross. And with it: people making money out of the big birds being there. The building was a veritable tourist trap: overpriced food, screaming children, exuberant entry fees. We did the fort tour, but let the big birds be, as we had had quite enough of our female guide already, who had trouble stringing a coherent sentence together.

We drove back to the campsite to have a shower before the Beetlemaniacs came back and did our diaries.

Posted by Nathalie on April 4, 2005 01:36 AM
Category: New Zealand/Aotearoa
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