Thursday, 9 October 2025
Aaahh! Our first two night stay, so we didn’t have to pack up the car this morning before heading out for today’s activities on the Otago Peninsula. We headed south around the harbour on Portsmouth Drive, before taking Portobello Road over the bridge separating Andersons Bay Inlet from the harbour. We zigzagged through the suburbs south of the Harbour then picked up Highcliff Road running along the spine of the peninsula. At Pukehiki we took a left onto Camp Road heading for Larnach Castle.
We arrived at the castle gate about 9.10am and still we couldn’t see the castle. We had to drive all the way up to the visitor car park before we glimpsed the grand home built by William Larnach in 1870. Originally from Australia, William was a banker lured to Dunedin by the wealth which followed the Otago gold rush. He lived at the property with his children and three successive wives until 1898. After squabbling over the will, his children sold the property.
Since that time the home has had several owners, spent time as a mental hospital run by the government and was twice abandoned and left to fall into disrepair. Since 1967 it has been owned by the Barker Family who have spent many years restoring the house and gardens. We paid a little bit extra for a guided tour of the house and throughly enjoyed the commentary that Christine provided as she led us through the rooms on the first and second floors.
Our tour with Christine concluded in the Tower Room. By this time Christine had already shared many facts with us about the lives of the original Larnach family, a little about the castle’s intervening years and details of the incredible effort the Barkers have made to restore this incredible piece of history. As our tour concluded she told us about some of the scandals and tragedies that beset the original owners. Hearing her many anecdotes really brought the rooms to life.
At the conclusion of the tour we were free to head up the narrow spiral staircase in the turret to enjoy the view from the roof. Returning to the first floor, where our tour commenced, we headed downstairs to explore the rooms that contained more information about the Larnachs and the building of their home and the conservatory. Heading outside we took a quick walk around the themed gardens.
We continued along the spine of the peninsula before plunging down to sea level at Portobello and turning right onto the Harington Point Road. We drove all the way out to the Royal Albatross Centre at the end of the peninsula. After booking places on the 1.00pm tour we headed into the cafe for a quick lunch.
At 1.00pm we were collected by our very enthusiastic, very knowledgeable guide, Libby, and taken into the small auditorium. After a quick introduction, Libby screened a short video for us telling us about the nesting colony here at the tip of the Otago Peninsula. We also learnt a little bit about the nesting colony of red-billed seagulls and the fur seals that also call the peninsula home.
Now for our second wild goose chase in two days, this time hoping to see albatross soaring above us. Despite spending an hour on this tour, we did not get to see the magnificent three metre plus wingspan of a single albatross. Unfortunately, our timing was really off. The last of last year’s chicks have fledged and headed off to sea for the next three to four years and this year’s breeding pairs have barely started to arrive. Our visit was pretty much in the middle of the two months during which there is no guarantee of seeing an albatross in flight. C’est la vie. Libby did point out one white blob on the slope outside the viewing area that was, allegedly, an albatross with its head tucked in under its wing. Honestly, we should just go looking for actual wild geese … or unicorns and we might have more luck??!
What we did see (and hear) more than enough of was the red-billed gulls! There were gulls allover the place squawking at each other. Did you know that the courtship behaviour of gulls includes the female squawking at the male begging to be fed … in the same manner that chicks are fed with regurgitated fish. If he obliges by feeding her she will let him do the business with her!! Eeeeuuuw.
After Libby left us back at the information centre we walked down to Pilots Beach where we glimpsed a couple of seals lazing around. Then, since we hadn’t been poohed on yet, we risked a foray across to the Waiwhakaheke Seabird Lookout where there were even more red-billed gulls. From the boardwalk we managed a glimpse of the Taiaroa Head Lighthouse. Rather amazingly we completed our visit without having anything nasty deposited on our heads or shoulders.
During our visit we had been struggling to see any difference between these red-billed gulls and the seagulls that plague Melbourne. As we drove back towards the city I had to Google it. OK, in Melbourne we call them silver gulls but they are pretty much the same bird. The red-billed gull is described as a subspecies of the silver gull in Australia. They both have the same markings, with the red-billed gull here in NZ being just a little smaller than the silver gull.
We drove back through the city and then took the road up to Mt Cargill with its lovely transmission tower crowning it. Of course, we didn’t dive up to see the transmission tower, we headed up there for the view over the Otago Peninsula and harbour and the City of Dunedin. We didn’t have blue sky and sunshine but it was dry and clear enough for some amazing views, looking back towards where we had been this morning.
Driving back down to the city we picked up a few more supplies from Woolies before returning to our motel. Bernie processed some of today’s photos and I watched last Sunday’s reveals on The Block.
For dinner tonight we walked into the city to a Mexican restaurant, Amigos. After our tacos, the big question was … churros for desert or ice-creams from the ice-cream shop that we passed on our walk into the city?? No question really, it is Day 4 of our holiday and we haven’t eaten ice-cream yet. We walked and walked, back towards ‘home’ and, no ice-cream shop. We feared it had closed up and we had walked right past it with no lights on?? No, it was just much closer to our hotel than we recalled. No
coffee ice-cream on their menu so I settled for a single affogato, which was practically a coffee ice-cream, and Bernie opted for a double vanilla bean.
Steps: 12,657 (8.36kms)
