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| Cathedral Church of St. Paul |
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| Dunedin Railway Station |
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| Railway Station front view |
We drove from our hotel in Dunedin City to the Larnach Castle, New Zealand's only castle, located on a peninsula a little outside of town. The castle was built by an Australian banker of Scottish descent. He relocated to New Zealand in 1867 and built Larnach Castle between the years of 1871 to 1887. We spent the morning touring the magnificent castle and gardens.
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| Views driving towards Larnach Castle |
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| The land and harbor of Dunedin are the remnants of a dormant volcano. It makes for some interesting landscapes. |
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| Larnach Castle |
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| Larnach Castle with the attached buildings |
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| Stunning view of the harbor from the top of the castle |
The inside of the castle was very ornate. Unfortunately, it was hard to take many good pictures inside because it was rather dark. The gardens were another matter. The gardens of Larnach Castle have earned the distinction of being a Garden of International Significance from New Zealand Gardens Trust. It would be hard to take bad photos of these gorgeous gardens.
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| The gardens at the front entrance |
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| The gardens overlooking the harbor |
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| The kids in front of the entrance to the dungeon |
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| Sitting in the Chair of Hearts |
We continued our journey north in the afternoon. We stopped to view the Moeraki Boulders at Koekohe Beach, about an hour north of Dunedin. They are unusually large boulders that are spherical in shape (except where they have cracked open). They are a natural phenomenon from the cementation of Paleocene mudstone and are now being exhumed by coastal erosion. Local Maori, the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, say the boulders were the remains of eel baskets, gourds, and sweet potatoes washed ashore the the wreck of a large canoe. The kids had fun walking amongst them and taking some photos. It was especially nice because the sun finally started to come out and warm us up.
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| The pin is the Moeraki Boulders |
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| Moeraki Boulders |
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| Carter looks like he was doing yoga on the boulder. |
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| Aubrey had fun doing her own poses. |
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| Impressive views, even without the boulders in the photo |
We headed straight to Christchurch after this stop and checked into our hotel around 6:00 pm. We decided to go see Christchurch as soon as we checked in that evening because we would not have time to see it in the morning. I had heard there was still a lot of damage in Christchurch from the earthquake that happened in February 2011. It was really saddening to see it though. After all, the earthquake had been almost 3 years prior and there were still buildings barely standing and huge piles of rubbish everywhere. Parts of the city center were just blocked off. There were walls of many buildings held up by stacked semi-trailers. It was a heartbreaking sight.
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| Downtown Christchurch |
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| The road that is blocked off that says "no exit" would have been a through street in the city center. |
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| The sign by these chairs says "St. Paul's Trinity Pacific Presbyterian Church" |
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| So, so sad..... |
The mood in the van was very gloomy until we caught sight of a Denny's restaurant very close to the city center. It has been years since I have been in a Denny's. It is probably not a place we would have thought about eating at if we were in the US. It is amazing sometimes what excites you when you have been living outside of the country for awhile. American breakfast food for dinner definitely hit the spot that night.
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| Cardboard cutouts are always fun. |
We drove towards the coast in Christchurch after dinner. We continued to see signs of the earthquake wreckage all the way to the beach in New Brighton.
After we walked around the beach a little bit, we drove back to the hotel and called it a night. We were going to have an early start the next day, so we needed to rest up.....
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