Otago Road Trip - Part one. Dunedin and Gore

For the last week and a half I have had the chance to explore the area of Otago with two members of my extended family. One of whom grew up in the area. It was a very short visit but has been been a great chance to see a small part of the south Island from the aspect of a local.

Road trip route-

1. Dunedin - Mon 14^th – Thur 17^th November
2. Gore – Fri 18^th November
3. Queenstown – Sat 19^th November
4. Wanaka – Sun 20^th – Tue 22^nd November
5. Oamaru – Tue 22^nd November

Dunedin

I began the trip flying into Dunedin Monday evening and meeting my mums cousin  Gretchen, who lives and works at one of Otago University colleges. On Tuesday I decided to take it easy as I was still suffering from my stupidity of falling off the kerb and hobbling around with a sprained foot. I wandered (slowly) into Dunedin centre and went on the hunt for a new camera. My last one gave up the ghost. It was nice to do some shopping again, I have been very restrained since being away so it was good to have a wander around the shops.

     

Dunedin Botanic Gardens

On the second day I went to the botanical gardens. The gardens are at the back of Gretchen's house so not too strenuous a walk, a perfect place to test drive my new camera and do a spot of drawing. The views over Dunedin were very impressive. I feel as if I am becoming a pro on botanical gardens since coming away and I have to say New Zealand does them very well. On Wednesday evening another cousin joined us- Chris from England. He has been in Australia for two weeks and flew over to new Zealand for this road trip. 

 

Lanarch castle

Gretchen

Chris and I

Thursday we to Lanarch Castle an old estate house built in 1870 (that's old for New Zealand) The house was very Scotish which after being in New Zealand was odd. The majority of houses in New Zealand are made from wood. Where as Lanarch Castle is made from stone which was a great feet in it self when built as stone is not a common building material at all here as it is harder to quarry.

View from Lanarch castle Gardens, no wonder they built a castle up here.

Tairoa Head 

Not a great photo of the Albatross.

After Lanarch Castle we continued up the coast to Taiaroa Head home to the worlds only mainland breeding colony. When we initially got there we did not see any Albatross, it was not windy enough for these large birds. After a quick visit into the visitor centre finding out information and getting warm. We began to spot a number of Albatross' high up in the sky the wind had picked up giving the Albatross amble assistance to take off. From high up in the sky the Albatross does not look very different from a sea gull but with a wing span of over three metres we where soon spotting them all over the sky.  

But a rather good one of a hedgehog.

Gore

On the Friday we he headed to Gore. We where staying with Margaret Gretchen brothers partner. A very lovely lady who cooked the most delicious food (after being away for eight weeks you learn to appreciate home cooked food when it comes your way). Margaret gave us a great guided tour of Gore. Gore is mainly a large town were a lot of farmers come from the surrounding area to do shopping. Sorry no photos from the time in Gore as I forgot to take my camera with me. 

I am going to stop there as writing about the whole road trip in one entry is going  to be very long..........For part two click here. 
http://whatkatiebriggsdidnext.blogspot.com/2011/11/otago-road-trip-part-two-queenstown.html

Thanks for reading

Katie x.x