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Published: January 19th 2012
Larnach Castle....
......built by an Aussie!Thursday - just so
Iknow! Getting my hotel room numbers mixed up - it's either the wine or the number of hotels or dementia - tick the appropriate box.
Interesting day................bit of a mix up with our trip booking: Monarch thought we were doing a morning trip and we thought it was a full day one. All worked out in our favor as we we got a free Larnach Castle visit - wouldn't have chosen to go on it but we really enjoyed it. Even had a piper there (Glen) to welcome the visitors (off the cruise ships) - he was pretty good given that he is about 5 generations removed from being Scottish! The guide was excellent, giving us all the scandal about the Larnach family.
Then the trip we expected to go on started: a visit round the peninsula inlets to see some of the bird life: swamp hens,Paradise ducks,kingfishers,Pied Stilts,Black Swans and so on.
From there we went to the Royal Albatross Centre at Tiairoa Head - and we actually saw some Northern Royal albatrosses flying! Very difficult to photo,though,as my pics of the sky demonstrated!
After that it was Penguin Place,a conservation area
for yellow-eyed penguins: saw a few chicks and a 13 month old one but the adults were out at sea foraging for food.
Then a cruise around Taiaroa Head to see fur seals,penguins (only 1 ),Royal Spoonbills etc. (boring.......). But got (slightly) better pics of albatrosses in flight - headed out into the Roaring 40's and got hit by a squall: dramatic temperature drop!
Still haven't seen much of Dunedin (altough the univerisity,which is nearby the hotel,has some interesting architecture).
Off to Te Anau next but may try and get some pics of the uni tomorrow morning (bit dark tonight).
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