Dunedin, New Zealand’s first city, has a population of slightly over 100,000 (not counting students) making it the second largest city of New Zealand’s south island. Our Australian and New Zealand holiday gave us one month to explore both countries - an obviously impossible task that allotted only one day to this fabulous city. Mark Dixon, our Awesome Tour guide, tailored a day to our interests, and helped us pack a week’s worth of activity into a few short hours.

Awesome Tour Van ready waiting while we check out the city center

      The name Dunedin was derived from the Gaelic Dun Eideann meaning Edinburg and was bestowed on the new home of Scottish immigrants stepping ashore there in 1848. Prior to their arrival the islands were sparsely populated by the Maori people. Today bagpipe bands and the country’s only kilt maker keep Scottish traditions alive. The talented Scots also brought their distilling skills to their new home, and today Dunedin boasts the only whiskey distillery in the country.

Statue of Robert Burns welcomes us to Dunedin

       The first stop of our visit was the City Center where a statue of Robert Burns welcomed us to the heart of Dunedin. St. Paul's cathedral, an Anglican masterpiece, beckoned from a half block away. We felt dwarfed by the soaring arches and enthralled by the Great War Memorial stained glass window above the main entrance porch and vestibule. This glass monument, representing victory and sacrifice, was made in London and shipped in panels to its current home.

 St. Paul’s Cathedral entrance with magnificent Great War Remembrance stained glass window

      On a lighter note, while at the City Center we visited the Gifts of New Zealand store where, in addition to lovely wools, I bought bags of chocolate Penguin and Kiwi Poo, Kiwi Worms, Sheep Droppings, and Squashed Possums. For grandchildren between the ages of five and twelve these souvenirs would bring wider smiles than another t-shirt. Each bag bore the logo “Naturally made in New Zealand.”

      Mark whisked us away from the City Center and past the Botanical Gardens where a fuchsia colored profusion of rhododendrons as well as asters and delphiniums created a glowing spectacle of blooms. We drove past the Cadbury Candy Factory (my only regret at the end of the day was that I didn't get to stuff myself with Carmello bars). I was assured Cadbury employees eat their fill of chocolate.  I may move to Dunedin and apply for a job. I am qualified to wash pots each night – but not before licking the last traces of sweetness.

Baldwin hill is far steeper than it appears

      Our next stop was at the top of Baldwin Street which runs 19.3 degrees at its sharpest incline. According to the Guinness Book of World Records it is the steepest street in the world. (Lombard in San Francisco is the crookedest). We watched a runner, who climbs the hill thirty times a day, make it look easy. Not easy enough to tempt me to try. Especially after hearing the story of an eighty-nine-year old gentleman who took up running a bit later in life. He made 98 runs, but on the 99th dropped dead.  I wasn’t about to risk it.

This was as far as we got up Baldwin Hill

      A bureaucrat in Scotland platted the land around Baldwin Street and sold it to emigrants readying to start a new life.  What he didn't tell his buyers was that the gradients or incline would make planting a house on these lots an interesting proposition. Fortunately for modern day shoppers and tourists, the central city is compact and flat with shops and cafes easily navigated on foot.

      We headed down to Otago University where the semester had just ended and students had piled their unwanted furniture (couches, beds, dressers), along the side of the road for garbage collection. The highly respected Otago University was established in 1869 and today nearly one-fifth of Dunedin’s population is students.

      We made another short stop to give us time to wander through the Flemish Renaissance Railway Station with architecture that doubles as a work of art and draws photographers from around the world. Multi-colored poppies filled the front lawn of the station. We barely had time to wink at the statue of Queen Victoria in her namesake Queens' Gardens because we were on our way to Nature’s Wonders.

The Flemish Renaissance Railway Station from the side

Gardens grace the front of the Flemish Renaissance Railway Station

The Railway Station is as magnificent from the inside and from the exterior

      As we drove, Mark told us about the indigenous people of New Zealand and how poorly they were treated poorly by the English in the 1860s. Great Britain took their land and when the Maori resisted they were imprisoned for treason and sent to Dunedin to build roads and rock walls around the harbor. In recent years there have been apologies and reparations and the Maori are now educating themselves (in the European tradition) and have their own political party within government. We stopped at Marae ( Otakou) which houses a church, meeting house and school. The local Maori are part of the Iwi tribe. They named the area around Dunedin Otakou which in the early 1800s was anglicized to Otago by the early sealers and whalers. The Otago Peninsula is a delight for nature lovers. It is the breeding ground of the northern royal albatross and we spotted one in flight. This bird has a wing span up to 3 meters or 9 feet.

      New Zealand has a huge bird population.  Originally birds had no natural predators and flocks flourished. Eventually deer, rabbits, opossum and ferrets were introduced to the country and the birds suffered greatly. Now they are protected and predators are being eliminated (shot or trapped), so many of the bird populations are coming back strong.

      We arrived at Nature's Wonders, a farm sitting on the Otago Peninsulla, owned by the Reid family and turned into an amazing conservation effort. Here animals are protected, not bothered or threatened.

On our way down to the ocean at Nature’s Wonders

      For this portion of the trip Mark turned us over to Matt who referred to Nature’s Wonders as a zoo in reverse. The animals are completely free and humans stand behind fences or huddle in little blinds.  People are not allowed to make noise, throw food, or get close enough to disturb the animals. The folks running this place transport visitors by 8-wheel ATV to the very highest point in Dunedin to drink in the magnificent views. They then head downhill to the ocean. Our bumpy journey took us through huge mud-puddles and I felt like a kid again, splashing and making a mess. The staff of Nature’s Wonders provided us with rain coats to protect our clothes.

Cormorants nesting Cliffside

      At sea level we walked to a viewing station and aided by binoculars watched cormorants sitting on nests.  One parent already tended a chick. It was a mesmerizing moment. At the next viewing station, we watched New Zealand fur seals.  One pregnant female lay quite still and according to Matt was ready to give birth. A few steps further we laughed at two pups frolicking in a shallow pond next to the ocean. Their mother had left them to play while she hunted eel. Matt told us the pups sometimes wander up to the trail and slide over people's feet. That only happens when mom isn't around to chastise such behavior. Viewers are urged to completely ignore the recalcitrant infants.

Pregnant seal waiting to give birth

      Our final viewing station was purposely built to allow viewers to hide behind blinds and peer with binoculars inside the nests of yellow-eyed penguins. There are only about three thousand of these rare birds left in the world. Unlike their near cousins that we have all seen in movies, the yellow-eyed penguin is very shy. They won't mate if there are seals, humans, or even other penguins around.  Nature's Wonders provides them a protected environment – they enjoy total seclusion on one of the world’s most pristine and beautiful beaches. It is untouched by human hands, feet or activity. To peek into the nests of these unique birds, with them unaware we were nearby, was an unforgettable moment. All of the profit collected by Nature’s Wonders tours is used to maintain the premises and fund programs to keep the animals safe.

      Every place we drove we saw sheep. We saw them on our way to Nature’s Wonders. We saw them at Nature’s Wonders, and we saw them as we drove towards our next stop which was Larnach Castle. New Zealand is famous for its high-quality wool products and its 40,000,000 sheep outnumber humans ten to one.

      Larnach Castle was on my ‘must see’ list. I’m a sucker for a dicey story. Built by William Larnach as the perfect place to view the hills and water of his lovely countryside, it is the only castle in the Southern Hemisphere. William chose to build his majestic home on a mountain with unparalleled vistas. He hired 200 men to work three years to prepare the mountain (they sheared off the peak to create a flat surface capable of supporting the massive structure) and to build the shell of the castle.  It took an additional twelve years to complete the construction and add embellishments. Most of the materials were imported.

William Larnach’s dream castle

      Tragedy struck when William's first wife, Eliza died at age thirty-eight of apoplexy before their castle was finished.  She left behind six children, two boys and four girls, the youngest, Gladys, still living at home. Eliza’s half sister, Mary, was also living with the family when this adversity struck and after Eliza’s death she remained to care for and help raise her youngest niece.

        William grew to love his late wife's sister and wanted to marry her.  Unfortunately, the law of the time forbade a union with his sister-in-law. Besides, or maybe because of, having more money than any one man could spend, William was quite influential, and he went to Wellington to serve in the government where he successfully got the law that prevented his second marriage repealed. William and Mary were wed five years when Mary, like her sister before her, died at age thirty-eight. Mary’s death resulted from blood poisoning, the complication of surgery to remove a tumor. Mary and William had no children, but for the second time the wealthy Larnach was a widower.

        William later fell in love with and married Constance Brandon, the daughter of one of his friends. Constance was thirty-seven and he was fifty-eight. In 1898, while William was at Parliament, he got wind of the tawdry romance his son, Douglas, was carrying on with his step-mother. William shot himself, the first and only politician ever to do so. Before his death William had drafted a will leaving everything to Constance. He had, however, not signed the will and William’s oldest son, Donald, contested the document and eventually inherited the estate. Constance got nothing. Serves the wench right, I'd say. To further add to her misery, Douglas eventually married someone else. William’s third and last wife lived the remainder of her life off the charity of her brother and never remarried.

      No one in the Larnach family wanted the castle and it served for a while as a mental hospital and then as a place for returning soldiers to relax and get their heads straight before rejoining society. Eventually the castle was deserted and fell into ruin. At one time the ballroom was used to shelter sheep. Now, restored, it is one of Dunedin's main tourist attractions. Weddings are held there and the gardens and grounds are splendid with an Italian marble fountain, a reflection pool, wishing well, dungeon, viewing lookouts, and rock, azalea and heather gardens among other visual delights.

      By the time we called it a day and wound our way back down the mountain, we had experienced the best of Dunedin. The only thing better would have been a few extra days to become more intimately acquainted.

Looking over the Dunedin countryside

All photos courtesy and copyright of Bob and Julie Royce.

Julie Royce, the Travel Adventures Editor for Wandering Educators,  is the author of Traveling Michigan's Sunset Coast and Traveling Michigan's Thumb, both published by Thunder Bay Press. She writes a monthly column for Wandering Educators.

Disclaimer: 

All my admissions were buy one get one free.