Otago, Southland, and Dunedin

Friday, 26 Feb - Friday, 5 March:  Queenstown to Invercargill to Dunedin

Our last morning in Queenstown we visited the Botanic Gardens down by the lake.  As we looked up toward the mountain where the gondola lift and restaurant are, we saw paragliders, whose take-off point seems to be even higher up the same mountain.  Experienced paragliders can, of course, take off on their own, but the big thing for tourists is the tandem glide.  The tourist (usually small and young) straps in with an experienced pilot, and they go down together.  From this photo I can't tell which it is, but it was a good ride - long time in the air.

From Queenstown we drove southeast into the broad dry plain called Southland.  The town of Cromwell on Lake Dunstan was on the way.  Here is a nice overlook.

A prominent feature at the overlook is this big rock with the International Rotary symbol on it.  I think the overlook was a Rotary project.

Invercargill is the southernmost real city in New Zealand.  Earlier in the trip when we had mentioned that we intended to visit Invercargill, people had said we shouldn't bother - there's nothing in Invercargill.  Well, they were wrong.  It's a very nice town with a lovely garden/zoo/aviary which we really enjoyed.  The topography reminds me of the Gulf Coast in the US - - spacious, flat, and low altitude.  But, of course, being south in the Southern Hemisphere means that it is closest to the South Pole, so, although the weather can be humid in summer, it's not oppressively hot and humid like the Gulf Coast.  It's an interesting example of a temperate mid-latitude coastal plain at latitude 46.4 degrees south.

This is a alpaca, a native of South America that is increasingly popular in New Zealand for its wool.

Here is a buck deer that would excite any of my deer hunting friends.  Deer were introduced back in the 19th century and quickly got out of hand.  Subsequently for many years there were extensive government eradication programs during which the wild deer were rounded up when possible, shot from helicopters when capturing them was impractical.  They are now raised in high-fenced farms for the venison market.  I believe that it is always open season on deer in the wild in New Zealand.  Personal opinion: I wish Michigan would do something to greatly reduce the size of its wild deer population. I know that deer hunting brings in lots of revenue to Michigan from hunters all over the midwest, but the deer are also very destructive and are involved in something like 60,000 deer-car collisions every year - - all of them expensive, some of them causing injury or death to humans.  Death to Bambi ! ! !

Here is Paula among the roses in the Invercargill Botanic Garden.

The aviary was spectacular!  The variety of colorful native southern hemisphere birds was just amazing.

The bird I like best in the following photo is the one with the white top and blue back.

We stayed just one night in Invercargill, and then drove around the southeast coast to Dunedin.  Along the way we took a detour south to Curio Bay, which, at latitude 46.661 deg S is within a couple of kilometers of the farthest south point on the South Island.  Out in the sand are the remnants of a petrified forest.  It's not as obvious and easy to recognize as a couple of petrified forests in the US, but there are good explanatory signs overlooking the bay to help the visitor recognize it.

On to Dunedin and its Botanic Gardens.  They have a great rock garden built up on terraces on the hillside, which Paula really enjoyed.

There was a cute statue of Peter Pan in the garden - I'm not sure why.  The sign at the base of the statue says, 

"Dedicated to the children of today, tomorrow & the future

Peter Pan           1966

Wendy Group     1968

Gifts of gratitude from Harold Richmond"

The high point of our seven-day stay in Dunedin was riding the choo-choo train.  The Otago Central Railroad was enormously important in opening up the vast fertile lands of Central Otago inland to the northwest of Dunedin.  Eventually in the mid-twentieth century the road system was sufficiently developed that the railroad was no longer cost-effective for freight, but the City Council of Dunedin recognized its potential as a tourist attraction and kept parts of it alive.  There are two scenic passenger routes that run regularly:  the Pacific Coast trip northeast up the coast to Palmerston,  and the Taieri Gorge Scenic Railway up the Taieri river valley to the northwest to Middlemarch.  We took them both on successive days.  Here is a typical view of pacific coast New Zealand:

The space between coaches was open, as was the rear observation deck behind the last car, and I took advantage of both.  What fun looking backwards and videotaping our entry into the many tunnels along the way!

The Taieri Gorge trip was the most spectacular ride we had on our whole tour of New Zealand.  Here is a train trestle over the river:

Several places we have visited have had memorials of one kind or another to the sheepdogs whose expertise and labor were really indespensible to the operation of the many large sheep stations and contributed immensely to the economy.  Wool and sheep meat are still very important export commodities for New Zealand.

More views of the train:

The city of Dunedin is nestled at the root of the Otago Harbor, which is protected on the southwest by the long Otago Peninsula highlands.  Out on that highland a rich banker named Larnach built New Zealand's only castle in the late nineteenth century.  After he died, Larnach's Castle and its extensive grounds were sold and resold, abandoned a couple of times, and fell into decay.  In the mid-1960's an enthusiastic young couple (who apparently had access to some serious money) bought the place as a historical treasure, and they and their family have spent a lifetime restoring it and the gardens on the grounds.  It is open to the public as a commercial enterprise, complete with restaurant and gift shop, and it is well worth a visit.  

We were able to climb up into the tower and take some spectacular pictures all around.  The rooms were outfitted with historically authentic items, many of them recovered at auction and from antique dealers from among the original furnishings of the castle.

Finally, way out at the tip of the Otago Peninsula on Taiaroa Head is the Royal Albatross Center.  Magnificent birds - 10-foot wingspan.  When I first saw pictures of them, I thought they were just overgrown seagulls.  But no, they are in a different family and even a different order from seagulls - - more closely related to petrels and other true seabirds.  I was glad to learn that, because I hate seagulls!