We had a few things left to do in Queenstown. High on the list was visiting the Patagonia Ice Cream shop again! They have lots of very creative cakes and cookies and pastries… but the ice cream and gelato is what we were after.
The first time we were there, I saw the servers artfully put a cone in a stream of dark chocolate, coating the inside of the cone and a tiny bit on the rim. When the ice cream hit it, it would harden… looked like fun! So this time I thought I’d try it. Apparently I wasn’t the only one trying it for the first time. My server seemed to be new at this… she poured the hot chocolate all over the outside… then she could hardly figure out how to hold it. But she filled it with gelato anyway…
So I had a fabulous raspberry gelato, but it was impossible to hold, let alone EAT, without it getting everywhere! The chocolate ran down all over my hand, and smeared up my beard. Cherryl laughed so hard!
Near the town square is this quaint little church. We didn’t go inside.
Queenstown has a gondola that you can ride up and have great views of the area. The day before we planned to do that, we thought we’d tackle the Queenstown Hill Walkway. It promised a bit of a steep trail, but an awesome view. It delivered!
On the trail up, at one corner we saw a Cairn, then several, then dozens! Maybe hundreds! Of course we had to add a small one to the collection.
Even when we were only part way up our trail, we could tell we were far above the top of the gondola. When we got to the top, we could see beauty forever in every direction! We decided to skip the little gondola!!
We were staying in a suburb of Queenstown, Frankton, where the airport is located. Here you can see that part of town and a plane leaving the airport.
Another trip that was highly recommended was the drive up to Glenorchy. It is a small town at the north end of Lake Wakatipu, a kind of “Lightning Bolt” shaped lake that Queenstown sits on. Before there was a road alongside the lake, Glenorchy was the last stop for a boat on the lake, bringing supplies and mail for those who lived up there. Now the road makes for a gorgeous drive.
The depot where the boats would dock has been preserved as a sort of museum.
The weather changed minute by minute… always a bit chilly, and windy, too, but clouds would come and go quickly.
From Queenstown we headed across the south island to Dunedin. (pronounced “Done – Eden“)
Dunedin claims its train station is the fanciest in the Southern Hemisphere. It looks very probable seeing this absolutely huge, ornate building!
Inside is very ornate also, with tile mosaics on almost every surface… even the stairways. The train motif on the stained glass windows was beautiful too.
Train travel has diminished drastically here, so even though the station is still used, it seems pretty quiet. Some of the station is a museum/art gallery, and most is not open to the public. But the tracks and platforms are still used, and waiting for travelers!
Dunedin was primarily a Scottish settlement. The name Dunedin comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland.
Dunedin has an interesting feature in the center of downtown… an octagon. The central plaza is octagonal, and for a few blocks surrounding it the streets form an octagon.
On the north west side is a tribute to Robert Burns. Given the Scottish heritage, a tribute to Scotland’s favorite poet seems logical.
Behind him is St Paul’s Cathedral. A very imposing structure, and surprisingly light and airy inside.
A ways up the Otago Peninsula from Dunedin, is the Larnach Castle. This claims to be the biggest castle in New Zealand… and the smallest. OK, the ONLY castle in New Zealand. I’m not going to try and detail the whole Larnach family, because it gets very complicated and some parts are pretty dark. But I will copy a bit from published info:
New Zealand’s only Castle, built 1871 by William Larnach, merchant baron and politician, for his beloved first wife Eliza. It took more than 200 workmen three years to build the Castle shell and master European craftsmen spent a further 12 years embellishing the interior. Larnach spared no expense on his dream home, which features the finest materials from around the world.
As too often happens with grand plans, things don’t always go as planned. Larnach’s wife died, and he remarried. The new wife and the kids didn’t get on too well. She lived in the castle, they didn’t want to, Larnach died, the new wife also, and the house sat abandoned for years.
The castle is privately owned by the Barker family, who in 1967 found it in miserable condition, and bought it with hopes of restoring it and living in it. They have done an incredible amount of work on the castle and the gardens. The family still live onsite, but we didn’t see their living quarters.
Some people pay just to see the gardens – they are that extensive and wonderful. Plants and flowers from all over the world are grown in many varied areas, with names like South Seas Garden, Rain Forest, Rock Garden, Tapestry Garden, and more.
The castle is on top of a steep hill, and the views are awesome.
Of course the main attraction is the castle and its ornate interior.
Stained glass, crystal, tile mosaics and ornate woodworking are everywhere.
Somewhat like William Randolph Hearst called his incredible Californian mansion a camping cottage, Larnach called this palace “The Camp.” If you forgot you were at a camp, the tile in the entryway would remind you. The Scottish wildcats are from Larnach’s Scottish clan Sutherland.
The music room:
The dining room:
The Georgian hanging staircase is the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere. The bannisters are mahogany and the handrails are not steam bent, but carved from solid kauri wood.
The master bedroom has an awesome view of the front gardens, and features a bed of kauri.
Continuing up to the roof, you are rewarded with a pretty special view!
There are references to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland throughout the garden. Most were easy to find, but the brochure told us to hunt for the Cheshire Cat. I was pretty certain it would be in a tree, but could not find it. (OK, there are LOTS of trees.) I finally asked a worker, and she said she and a friend searched for hours before she worked here, and didn’t find it. But now she knows, and was nice enough to share… it’s right in the big tree to the left of the castle. In plain sight, if you happen to look up there!
The next day we decided it would be fun to rent some bikes and ride up the other side of the bay. We tried a couple of bike shops, who basically just sold new bikes. Then we were led to a little place that is self-served. There are signs on the walls on how to go online, pay for your rental, then they email you the code for the bike locks and you can pick out a bike and helmet and go. The code for all the bikes is the same, so you can try out a bike and swap for another if you need. It’s kind of an honor system, but it seems to work well, once we figured it all out.
We had a nice ride up to Port Chalmers, on the north side of the bay. This was our first real experience with eBikes, and I’ll admit to being impressed. We still got a good workout, but we could see far more than we would have on our little conventional bikes. It’s a good thing we don’t have room to store them in our motorhome, or I might be tempted to buy a couple eBikes.
Here you can look across the bay and see the Larnach Castle on top of the hill.
