(by Ann) There is only one castle in New Zealand. And we found it. It sits high up on a hill, of course, on the Otago Peninsula off of Dunedin. In 1871 William Larnach had a castle built for his growing family. No kings or queens here, just stunning architecture complete with a turret with tight winding staircase at the front. Unfortunately, or not surprisingly perhaps, the castle has a dark side to it and the Larnach family suffered tragedies as two of William’s wives died at age 38 and William lost his fortune and committed suicide…not in the castle.

"Our" castle.

Dinner in the castle.

The castle was found many years later neglected and empty and for sale at a great price. The Barker family bought it and spent 40 years lovingly restoring it. Today the castle is open for guided tours or as in our case, self-guided tours. We were even allowed to climb the steep winding staircase to the highest turret. The restoration is beautiful.

Spiral Staircase up toward the tower turret.

The gardens also have been restored complete with the Alice in Wonderland characters throughout…perhaps as reference to Alice’s comment in the Lewis Carroll book,

“I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The antipathies I think…but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please Ma’am, is this New Zealand?”

Our three course dinner in the music room complete with a dramatic storyteller and entertaining company (two Americans, two Englishmen, two Irishmen and half a table of Germans!) was magical. Much like the magic of being greeted at the Stables by the butler, Graham who seemed to appear out of no-where to guide us to our delightful room for the night above the stables!

What's that in the tree?

Could this be the hidden door in the tree?

(by Ann) We have repeatedly said while in anchorages that our greatest surprises happen when we stop and say hello to other boats at anchor. Surprise! We are finding the same thing in our land cruising. Although we are traveling in an unbelievably beautiful country we are repeatedly thankful and joyful about the people we meet.

At an Irish pub in Dunedin we met a few such characters. The first was a gentleman who watched the four of us, we were with Bob and Linda from Bright Angel, look quizzically at the menu trying to decide if we should eat there. Terry, a lovely man from Scotland, stepped forward to tell us that the food was excellent and that we would not be disappointed if we stayed. (He was right!) Sounded good to us so we took a recently vacated table. When we saw Terry hanging out at the end of the bar for quite some time we wondered if it had been a set up and perhaps he was the owner (he wasn’t). As the evening progressed we were entertained by Terry who was very interested in our travels and kept coming back to our table to share his thoughts. And when we went to take pictures Terry leapt forward to do it for us. Giggles and laughter followed and before you know it we had Terry and our waiter, Brad in the photos!

Ann with her very patient waiter Brad testing the Guiness Milk Shake.

Brad is also one of my Dunedin favorite characters. Why? Because when we discussed dessert options he agreed to get the kitchen to serve me vanilla ice cream and Guinness. He too thought it sounded yummy. I was served a small bowl of ice cream with a small pitcher of Guinness to pour on top. It took a bit, but I convinced Brad to go get a spoon and taste test. Not sold on my concoction he brought me some chocolate syrup to add to it. Perfection! Especially when I mashed it altogether lit a thick shake. Thanks for playing, Brad!

And as for playing….nice segue huh?….we have been intrigued by the game of cricket which is ubiquitous in New Zealand. And we still don’t get it. No worries! While washing breakfast dishes at our hostel I met a some adults who were in town for their boys’ cricket tournament and invited us to come see the 13 year-olds play. We found the field and were treated to a blow by blow description of the game. Quite entertaining and much more complex than we previously knew.

On the Cricket pitch.

But not as entertaining as finding out that the guy’s brother lives in our favorite little city of Geraldine AND is a fly fishing guide! Can you guess where we are going to visit on our way north?

Yup, serendipity rules and to prove it, we’re spending an extra day in a lovely spot we have found along the way. We found a hostel overlooking the ocean with a beautiful central living area complete with wood burning stove. We have again met Bright Angel Bob and Linda here and have the place to ourselves!

It doesn’t hurt that there is also a brewery and whiskey tasting in the nearby town as well.

Did someone say; "Whiskey?!"

Vintage Whiskey!

Whiskey Tasting!