Our South Coast exploration included a visit to Larnach Castle (the only one in New Zealand). Given that Scotsmen tended to settle in the Dunedin area (the green, rolling hills are truly remeniscent of Scotland), it's no surprise that Charles Larnach chose this site for his dream home (http://www.larnachcastle.co.nz/Visitor-Information/Visit-the-Castle.aspx). The Barker Family purchased the castle and surrounding grounds in 1967 and are continuing their life's work of restoring the castle to its original glory.
The drive up to the castle was winding and narrow, although not as steep asome of the other drives we had. Starting at the carpark, the grounds engulf you. We strolled from the carpark through the Rain Forest on our way to the castle proper. After fortifying ourselves with lunch at the adjoinng cafe, we entered the castle. The craftmanship from European carpenters and artisans was clearly on display, especially the ceilings, mosaic tiles, and furniture. One wooden ceiling took three artisans six and half years to complete the intricate carving. The Barkers live in the castle and don't exclude any areas from public viewing. They do ask that visitors not touch the furnishings as the effects of thousands of hands would adversely affect the restoration.
While enjoying our self-guided tour, we noticed that folks from the 1800s were much shorter – beds and baths would cramp most of us. And they must have gotten plenty of exercise walking around the grounds. We made our way up an exceedingly narrow and steep circular staircase to the roof. On top we were rewarded with excellent views of those grounds and the surrounding scenery, even given the low clouds. On a clear day, we could have seen all the way across the city of Dunedin in one direction and up past the tip of the Otago Pennisula where the Castle sits.
So, now that our castle tour was over, we figured the gardens and grounds were just worth a quick glimpse before heading out. Not so fast – for one thing, they are extensive so just walking through all of them takes a while. The brochure for the gardens mentioned that they had statues representing characters from Alice in Wonderland scattered throughout the grounds. So, we set off on a treasure hunt. We found most of them (The King, The Red Queen, The March Hare, and Alice herself), but that darned Chesire Cat eluded us. Anna checked the internet later and discovered that the Cat statue appears to be up in a tree rather than on the ground. Oh well, were definitely had a good time with the hunt and savored the colorful birds and plants in the gardens.
