New Zealand Discoverer

Day Eight – 4 March 2012 – Day of the Hat

Weather: cloudy, peeks of sun, 16

Another solid night of sleep and my wake-up call came right at 7 on the dot. I used up the rest of my two hours of internet and went down for breakfast. They had a nice layout with the same items but also had spaghetti and eggs benedict. And the tea, for some reason, was delicious. Must be the water since the tea bag was the same English tea.

As I went out to the lobby, I noticed a lot of buff young men hanging around. There was a rugby game last night that everyone was talking about. Well, the team was staying at our hotel and the fact that I got a good night’s sleep means they lost. The team’s name was The Crusaders.

I was talking to the others on the tour talking about how we couldn’t get the pronunciation of Twizel right (Twy-zel). I had heard someone call it Tinsel before I had seen how it was spelled and one of the rugby players was sitting near us with a smirk on his face. He confirmed the pronunciation for us and told us about Mt. Cook and what not to miss there.

Like the helicopter ride.

And the forecast is great for the next few days. (The long term has rain for the north island but it’s a few days off and the temps look to be in the low 20s. I can easily handle rain with 24 degrees).

You know, come to think of it, Dunedin isn’t much farther south than 46 degrees south. Now, think about it. The border of Canada is the 49^th parallel north. Even southern Ontario and St. John’s are hanging around 46-47 degrees north.

That means, between here and Antarctica, we can pretty well fit the entire country of Canada.

Amazing.

So, John pulls up in the bus and we board for the 20 minute drive to Larnach Castle. We meet our guide and she tells us its a wonderful day to visit because today is the 45^th anniversary of the castle’s purchase by the current owners, the Barkers, and it is Margaret Barker’s 70^th birthday. (Her husband passed away five years ago and Margaret doesn’t live in the castle anymore. She’s nearby though).

The “castle” was built by William Larnach in the latter half of the 19^th century. He had a number of children but didn’t have much luck with his wives. His first wife – the mother of the kids – died of a stroke shortly after returning from a trip to the UK. His second wife died from typhoid while nursing in Wellington and his third wife was much younger than him and she started an affair with William’s son, Douglas. One day, William got a letter while in Wellington and went into a room and shot himself. The letter was never found and no one knows what it said.

The castle (which is really just a really nice stone house with that central tower) exchanged hands a few times until it was bought in 1967 by the Barkers. The house was in bad shape and even the ball room had been used to house sheep. The original furniture had been sold decades earlier. So, they rolled up their sleeves and spent decades restoring the home, using the proceeds from visitors to fund the restoration. They also tried to buy back some of the original furniture with some success. In one case, Mrs. Barker advertised in NZ papers for a dining room piece and got 22 replies, but she said that the moment she saw the original, she knew it was real. It had the same spindles that were laid into the wall and same type of wood and fit in the alcove perfectly. The guide brought us into one of the side bedrooms where William’s third wife was done up in her wedding dress, but on the ceiling was a mannequin dressed in period pyjamas with bluish skin and she looked like she was flying.

Yeah. You don’t see that every day in a castle in Europe!

The guide told us it was the ghost room.

Oooookay.

When she’s finished with the tour, she shows us to the narrow staircase that takes us up to the top of the tower for some wonderful views of the surrounding countryside. (I have no photos of the interior so it must have been prohibited).

On my way down, I notice the symbol of the Larnach family above the outside entrance. It’s a coat of arms that says Sans Peur (without fear) on it and on either side are two Scottish wild cats.

We left the castle and its 35 acres of manicured gardens (yes, a longer visit here would not be wasted) and drove back to Dunedin where we came across an interesting sight. A woman taking a full sized sheep for a walk on a leash along the sidewalks of Dunedin.

No one got a picture.

We made a tea stop in downtown Dunedin so people could visit the church or railway. I visited the souvenir shop and bought a fleece hat. Watch now, the sun will come out.

I also was able to pick up another lens cloth as the one I had yesterday disappeared somewhere after the cruise.

We left Dunedin by 11:30 for the 260 km drive to Twizel (not Tinsel) and Mt. Cook. Nellie hasn’t mentioned any optionals yet but I’m hoping for a short helicopter ride over the mountain with sun in the forecast.

As we leave Dunedin, I turn to a tourmate and say Nellie is probably going to put on “Here Comes The Sun” as our song for the road and not ten seconds later, it’s on. LOL.

And then the sun came out. Now no one will let me take the hat off.

We drove for about an hour, marvelling in the blue sky then Nellie said our lunch stop was going to be a town called Moeraki. If you’re a geologist, you probably know what this means.

The restaurant/shop is on the beach and below the buildings is an unique formation of rocks called The Boulders. I missed the explanation as to how they formed but it has to do with crystal formations.

We arrive at noon and I skip the long line for Blue cod fish and chips and go straight down to see the Boulders. They are very interesting. Perfectly round boulders the size of VWs. Nellie asked us not to pull away at the loose layers on the rocks. Some rocks had split and you could see the inside crystalline structure.

Others sat entirely out of the water and others were on the edge or nearly submerged and being pounded by surf. Very interesting formations. Even moreso given that they’re only in one section of a very long beach.

I strolled along, taking pics. People would stand on the rocks between the waves. In one case, a Korean couple stood on a rock while their young son tried to take their picture with a DSLR camera larger than his head.

He was moving around, unable to hold it right and taking pictures of the sky then the beach then the sky. LOL.

I spent about 20 minutes down there then went back up to the cafe where everyone was just getting their fish-n-chips. I grabbed a chicken sandwich and went to say hello to the deer in the fenced area next door.

I picked up a coke and an ice cream and as I got aboard the bus, the coke slipped out of my pocket and exploded among everyone behind me.

Yeah. I know how to make friends.

We left The Boulders under a near-clear blue sky and drove the half hour to Omaru, a large town where with a lot of buildings made from a creamy white limestone. It’s dubbed as New Zealand’s best built town.

The limestone buildings are gorgeous.

Nellie gave us a half hour to walk the main street which has a lot of old time shops including a livery, bakery, brewery and a bicycle shop (where you can rent the old big wheel bikes to try) etc.

I made a bathroom stop, found another coke that I won’t let go of and walked back to the bus. We got on the road by 3 pm and Nellie put on a short video on Omaru about it’s history then another comedian.

We made yet another stop at an ice cream spot but I didn’t get an ice cream. There’s a fine line between “being on tour” and “being a glutton.” I’m trying not to pass it.

The sky has cleared completely thanks to the block heater on my head. (Yes, it’s getting warm, but if I take it off now, I’ll have “hat head” and the clouds might roll in)

We move into the area of lakes that are a string of power dams. The water always seems to have a gorgeous blue colour. We pulled into Benmore Dam and got out to take our dam pictures.

We didn’t get a dam tour. Between the bright sun, gorgeous water colour and bright green countryside, it was a dam good set of pictures.

We carried on from there and Nellie decided to make the 5 minute drive past our hotel to the Mount Cook lookout. As she says, seize the day. In other words, if the sun is shining, don’t expect that it’ll be there in the morning. In 9 tours this year, Nellie has seen Mount Cook twice. Again, we’ve lucked out with our windows in the weather.

Some turned to me and told me not to take the hat off yet.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky or any mist around the mountains. Completely clear.

Wow.

It’s a Lake Louise moment. Even the water has that green colour.

Absolutely beautiful.

We turned around to make our way to our hotel – the MacKenzie Country Inn. Nellie said not to expect the same quality of hotel, but frankly, there’s nothing wrong with it. Beautiful view with some mountains in the distance. The grounds are nicely manicured. My room has two large beds, tv, iron and board and all the other usual stuff. Again, no safe. Defintely sensing a theme there. Internet is in the room and reasonable too. Ten dollars for a full day and 500 mb.

I went down to dinner. It was a buffet with a nice pasta and a chicken in sauce. It was nice to have a relaxing dinner not having to wait for the food. Nellie sat with us at dinner and told us that we will get a chance to see downtown Christchurch – at least the part that has replaced shops with sea containers. A great opportunity to leave a few dollars behind in a spot that could use it, I imagine. She told us that wake-up for tomorrow is 8 am.