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I have alot of ground to cover today, and the weather gods have obliged with a beautiful day of sunshine, blue skies and warmth. I had a lovely breakfast at my Dunedin home, and a good chat with Angela the obliging owner about the ins and outs of the B&B industry.
First on a long agenda today - a visit to the beautiful Dunedin train station, famous for it's gothic architecture, stained glass windows featuring trains and tiled and mosaic interior made by royal doulton. An otago farmers market was in full swing when I arrived, selling lots of the seasonal stoned fruits and berries, great bread and pork products.
Next stop the Dunedin public art gallery, a contemporary space and collection that was fantastic. Their usual collection is grouped in themes and framed against bold coloured backgrounds, for example sense and sensibility had paintings about women from the Victorian era on one side of the room, and a collection of genteel to rough and rugged male portraits on the other. Flesh combined confronting contemporary photography to classical nudes.
Next stop the otago museum, featuring 150 years celebration of the local newspaper the Otago Age covering changes in the business of journalism, lifestyle through the ages, major news stories, royalty visits (a great shot of the queen mum fly fishing) and everyday people. The other exhibition was on Muslim settlers in new Zealand and was a series of portraits and stories of how their religion affects the kiwi lives they all proudly live. The usual exhibitions include the wildlife of the otago penninsular, and the history of the peoples who were the founders of Dunedin (a mixture of Maori, rough and ready whalers and presbytarian scotsmen).
Lunch time - back to the esplanade which is now teaming with people walking along the foreshore and surfers making the most of the big surf. I am lucky to get a table at swell cafe and enjoy a vegetable and polenta stack whilst watching the waves roll in.
I head out to the otago penninsular and take the high road. The views at the top of the ridge are of pastural land sloping down to cliffs that drop into the ocean, to be pounded by waves. All around the penninsular wildlife have claimed parts as a sanctuary, from NZ fur seals and sea lions, blue penguins, yellow penguins and the only mainland colony of albatross. I drive to sandfly beach, famous for wildlife, but after a steep climb there is none to be seen! Just down the road is larnach castle, new zealands only castle and now a privately owned home that is open to the public. The current owners use the stately ballrooms and grounds for weddings, and they have gone to alot of trouble to source the original belongings and restore the home to it's former glory. The original owner, William larnach built the castle for his wife, but after she died the family hit trouble as children resented the two subsequent wives and inheritance became a hotly contested subject. It all ended in tears when William discovered his last and vastly younger wife was having an affair with his son and he committed suicide by shooting himself in parliament.
The road became much narrower as I completed the circuit and made my way back along the coastal road. By the time I returned to the city it was time for dinner, so decided to go to the ale house, a brewery of speights, the southern islands beer. They serve good old fashioned pub grub so I ordered lamb shank and mash!
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