Dunedin

Last weekend, I visited Dunedin. It's the closest city to Christchurch at 360 km. Wellington might be closer. It's 350 km to Picton, which takes you west of Wellington, but then there is a 5-hour ferry ride. I kept hearing about neat things that I could do in Dunedin and the pressure of the "To See" list finally overwhelmed me.

My travel companions were Mareike and Bhalchandra. Tops on my agenda were to tour the Speight's Brewery and to visit Larnach Castle. We left Saturday morning at 7:15. On route 1 that connects the cities, we stopped at the Moeraki Boulders. The boulders were almost spherical and the first photo is of me standing on one. I don't believe they know what geological process created them.


I was scheduled for the 2 pm tour at the brewery and we arrived in Dunedin with plenty of time. Mareike and Bhalchandra didn't have reservations, and we were lucky because a large group, who did have reservations, didn't show up. A brewery is fundamentally boring and Speight's was no exception. It was gravity driven meaning that you pour water in the top, on the roof, and beer comes out the bottom. It was closed for the weekend, so there was no action on the brewing floors. We didn't see the bottle machinery so we couldn't reenact the opening of Laverne and Shirley. The second photo is of our tour guide in front of a fermenting vat. However, the reason for a brewery tour is to taste their samples at the end. Of the cheap New Zealand brews, I like Speight's the best. There were six flavors for us to sample and the tour guide let us pour our own. We had little glasses, and I drank a circuit. A television in the tasting room looped through all the Southern Man commercials ever made. It's a well-known ad campaign in New Zealand with two stereotypical cowboys.

Saturday and Sunday night, we stayed at the Elm Lodge Backpackers on a hill overlooking the Octagon and the harbor. We had a private room with three beds. The hostel was clean, and the garden had a hot tub. On Saturday night, we visited the most popular student bar, the Captain Cook Tavern, but it was dead because it was spring break.

On Sunday, we puttered around the Otago Peninsula. Mareike wanted to see penguins. We learned that you wouldn't see them until later in the early evening. We walked around Larnach Castle. It wasn't as big as I imagined. I think the mansions in Newport, RI, are larger. The castle is one of the better-known haunted locations in New Zealand. I would've taken more photos, except there were numerous "DO NOT TAKE PHOTOS" signs posted throughout. The third photo is of ballroom that was supposed to be the most haunted part of the castle. As usual, I see nothing unusual.

The penguins were the highlight of the trip. We tried the free penguin viewing location first, but there were numerous sea lions lounging around the beach. We figured the penguins wouldn't be coming ashore that evening. We caught the 4:15 tour at Penguin Place, a habitat restoration on a farmer's land for the yellow-eyed penguin. They're traditionally antisocial, but one modeled for the last photo. You hiked through trenches to blinds to observe them come to shore after a day of fishing. We also saw blue penguins asleep in their shelters.

Sunday night we went to the observatory where the Dunedin Astronomical Society opened the observatory telescope for the public and set-up large homemade telescopes for viewing celestial objects. I learned how to find the South Pole in the heavens, saw the reddest star in the sky, and observed the moons of Jupiter.

On Monday, we drove through the Catlins. Lonely Planet called it a rain forest and it was too tame for my taste. There were lots of sheep pastures. I've regretted not visiting the Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula when I lived in Seattle. So get out and see your local attractions.