The Land of the Long White Cloud

Well, we have witnessed and spoken about New Zealand's fame as the land of the long white cloud many times over the last two weeks. This title has its beginnings in the lore of the Maori and today, we found out first hand that the long white cloud originates in Dunedin.

The morning is damp and darker - the fog lingers,  We began with breakfast shared in the dining room with our fellow guests.  It is Sunday and everything is at as lightly slower pace.  Breakfast starts 30 minutes later and there is less hubbub and rush.  

We take the advice of Stuart last night and head up Signal Hill.  Wow, what a wonder this is.  The fog is burning off quickly and the morning is growing warmer and brighter.  The air as we climb into the hills is crisp and clear and is filled with the scent of the pine trees and grassy meadows with a slight undertone of the salt air coming in from the sea.
Once we reach Signal Hill, passing a number of people walking up, and one keen runner, we find a stunning monument and gorgeous views.  The monument links Edinburgh in Scotland and Dunedin, which has had a large number of Scottish immigrants.
The monument and the figures on either end of the landmark represent 'History' and 'the Thread of Life'.

The view takes in from the Otago Peninsula where we are headed today right across Dunedin from Port Chalmers to the hills behind.  You can see the fog burning off in the photo above, and you can also clearly see the long white cloud that sits firmly blanketing the city after the fog.

The road back into the City is very steep and we need to drive down with one foot firmly on the brake.  So we figure that the next spot to visit is Baldwin Street - listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's steepest residential street at a 35% slope!  Even I am not going to drive down that one.  Just after Michael takes his photo, a local hoon turns into Baldwin Street at the top and roars down the road, scattering the tourists who are busy standing in the street taking photos.  He thinks he is funny.  Will be singing a different tune the day his brakes fail.  Idiot.

From here we head over to the Peninsula.  As we drive over, we realise that the long white cloud is coming in from the sea.  It travels silently across the water, finger-like into the bays and inlets, keeping a long, low profile until it hits an island in the Bay where it rises like a bulbous mass before again settling into its long low profile on the other side.

The bay alternates between being shrouded in the mysterious dampness that comes with the low cloud, and bright sparkling summer waters complete with sunshine glittering and small boats at play.  It is totally captivating and Michael who one minute says "enough Bay photos" and before the day is through, maxes out the storage on the camera and on his phone! The easiest way is to show you!

We drove the entire length of the Otago Peninsula and finished up at the Royal Albatross  Centre.  Michael took a walk down the path to the signed lookout, but there are no albatross to be seen - just a fur seal surfing the waves.  Up at the Information Centre,we are told that the Albatross are nesting in the cliffs behind the centre and can only be seen on a guided walk.  The tickets are normally $50 per person (yep 50!) but because there is only one albatross and a chick at the moment, the tickets are discounted to $35.  We decide that the cost is actually too expensive for what you get and opt to just explore the information room which is very good, and free.

Once fortified with a coffee and a shortbread, we head off again, past lots of small fishing shacks, a fisherman getting his cray pots ready and a lady putting up a paling fence.  Our next visit will take the rest of the afternoon - Lanarch Castle. This was another of the 'must-sees' that everyone had told us about.

New Zealand's only castle, it is actually a manor house built by an Australian.  Our first activity was to have some lunch in the Ballroom Cafe - it has gone past 2 pm - no wonder we are hungry.  I have a Ploughman's Plate and Michael has the Squid Ink Pasta.

Our hunger sufficiently sated, we enter the hallowed halls of this imposing home. The first impression one experiences is the wooden paneling and carvings made from mahogany, walnut and rosewood. The capital which has been injected into the castle's restoration over the past 50 years is unimaginable. The entry tickets we purchased had given us access into the main building and the gardens.

Entry into the dwelling is by way the main foyer with its magnificent tiled floor, and from a simple lesson in navigating the manor by the directions on the information pamphlet provided. Taking the stairs leading down to the ground floor, gun room and reception room. In the reception room, visitors are presented with an audio/visual on the history of the manor and the current owners' work in progress in restoring the building and grounds.


Every window contains a proportion of coloured glass which is also found in the pantry windows! From the conservatory through to every room, all have been faithfully restored to its original splendour. The central staircase is a sight to behold, as are the views from atop the main tower. The view from the tower is a panoramic 360 degrees which gives the visitor an outstanding appreciation of the gardens.


The gardens! Now, for those devotees of Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carrolls' masterpieces, "Alice Through The Looking Glass" and "Alice's Adventures In Wonderland", these gardens are for you.

Off with their heads!

As with exploring the manor house, the same applies to the gardens - map. If a visitor follows the directions faithfully, they are taken into Alice's world: the Queen of Hearts, White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat and others....of course our heroine, Alice herself.

I've got a good idea...let's change the subject!

As the afternoon was galloping, we decided it was time to push on as our laundry washing was calling and as was good coffee. However, we had intended to stop at a cafe called '1908' on the way back to Dunedin which did not eventuate. We were on the return journey when we realised that 1908 was 14 km in the direction from where we came! Ces la vie! We pushed on to our rendezvous with the laundromat. 


Two hours later, the clothes washing done-and-dusted, we drove into Dunedin city centre  and had a wonderful dinner at a Japanese restaurant called "Tokyo Garden". We started with a complimentary Miso soup followed by our mains: Maria- Karaage Chicken Bento; Michael - Teriyaki Beef Bento. Yummmmm!

Pleasantly satisfied with our meals and feeling somewhat weary after another full day, we made our way to The Brothers - in the rain. The expected downpour finally arrived . . . two days late.

Upon our return to the hotel, we met a male couple who arrived at the same time as us. They introduced themselves as Rob and Robert who hale from Bournemouth, UK. They weren't expecting to arrive due to the intense snow fronts affecting the UK at present. So, after a chat and providing them with a few hints of what to see and how to get around Dunedin, we bade them a good night.

To you good friends....

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended,
That you have slumbered here
While these visions did appear.....
.....
So, good night unto you all
Give me your hands if we be friends
And Robin shall restore amends.

A Dahlia for dear old Dad

FRIDAY 11 SEPTEMBER

OMG we turn the tv on for the first time last night and there we see the news reports on CNN (the only English speaking channel there is) reporting the eighth anniversary of 911. How quickly those years have passed. And we do not want to watch it every 15 minutes, so the TV goes off again. Breakfast at the Europalace Hotel was fine - you kind of get over hotel breakfasts pretty quickly here on the continent.

Helen goes for an early morning walk to check out the local weekly markets - but didn't take the camera. I am trying to finish bring the blog up to date. Lots of lovely fresh produce she reports, fish and veges. And some nice Italian clothes and shoes, all packed out with the multitude of cheap imported stuff from India and China like in any other local market place. Sitting on the promenade there are also a number of Africans peddling all sorts of touristy stuff such as cared giraffes - Italy? Yeah, whatever.

Once she is back we make plans for the day. We would like to have a look at Botanical Gardens of Villa Taranto which is located a couple of kilometres from where we are staying. Michael decides not to join us, but rather to take a bit of a longer walk around the town of Pallanza and the surrounding roads.

So, off we head in the car. Thankfully most of the markets are cleared and I follow a van the wrong way up a one-way street to exit the area. We get caught in the back streets rising away from the lake, behind cars that are parked blosing the street and parents collecting children from a nursery. And at the end of the road, we can only turn right back towards the town. As the brochure I had collected from the Tourist Centre said to just follow the road signs, I hadn't bothered to connect Kate. Before we head off again, I do just that, ask for Points of Interest near us, select Villa Taranto and follow her very clear directions. Up through the newer section of the town complete with the obligatory McDonalds!

Parking is offered - and free - at the Villa, so in we pull, parking in the shade of a large tree. Once we pick our jaws up off the ground when we see the entry gardens, we purchase our tickets and then start with? A COFFEE of course. In fact, the best coffee we have had since hmmm - not sure when. Coupled with a 'cream cake' as described by the waiter - that turns out to be a slice of the loveliest custard pie, life is grand!

And then we are off. Passed the most amazing bedded annuals edged by a piece of lawn that looks like it is freshly vaccuumed carpet. Such tiny leaves of grass, so beautifully manicured and such a wonderful edge to the pink and white and blue petals. As we move up the path, we pass by a range of fir trees, the likes of many we never see in Australia. They are obviously well cared for as they are all healthy. In behind there are the occasional shrub including some of the largest and bluest hydrangeas we havever seen.

Getting to a fork in the path, we look to the right and see the spectacle that is the Putti Fountain. This is set in a formal sculptured garden filled with beds of the largest tuberous begonias that either Helen or I have ever seen, and immediately surrounded by the giant leaves of Colocasia antiquorum (elephant ears). Helen's dream garden she declares and toys with the thought of texting Greg a photo and asking him to get busy :-)

From here it's a short wander in the sun to the Dahlia Garden or maze - a contorted pathwhere we admire more than 300 varieties (? - well that is what the brochure says!) of dahlias. Now, those who know me really well will know that these were Dad's favourite flower. He grew quite a few of the varieties on show here year after year after year - from house to house that they lived in. It is hard to take a poor photo of them, they are so spectacular, bees included. What is astounding though, is the size of the bloosoms - they are HUGE compared with any I have ever seen in Australia. Boy, I'd love to know what they feed them. It's at this point that we are pushed by, by a group of American tourists one a mission - gotta see it all, never mind about the experience we have the photos!

We hold back, not wanting to be thought to be a part of it. At the end of the maze, there is a rather decrepit looking glass house. However, the Victoria Cruziana inside is anything but. The pad of these water lillies are supposedly large and substantial enough to hold a child - wow! Fully grown, these are more than a metre wide!! Amazing world we live in. There is a smaller pond in front with the more common waterlilly that graces many of the streams and ponds near home in Maryborough.

Then its over to the Mc Eacharn Mausoleum built in 1965 where the last remains of the garden's founder Captain Neil Boyd Mc Eacharn are laid. Its small, tasteful and with stained glass windows reflecting the flowers of the gardens. A nice spot to pause on what is becoming a hotter day.

And from here its all up-hill. We want to see the Terraced Gardens and so up the stairs we go - way up. (Helen now ...) Then we walked around and around and up and down and saw lots of other things like flowers and stuff. LOL The gardens were lovely and at each turn in the path you saw and experienced a new wonder.

(I'm ba-ack!) We have delighted over the Terraced Gardens and altough there are a heap of other people here today, Helen manages to get a photo of it almost devoid of other people - just the beauty overlooking the world! And since we are at the top of the world, we have to get down. Up a further incline for a couple of hundred metres to the Uscita-Ausgang-Exit-Sortie sign. Two choices. 860 m if we choose the steps, 1100 m if we choose the sloping path. Steps are my real downfall, so we opt for the path, only to discover at the end of the first switchback 300 m later that we are now at the bottom of the one flight of steps! Oh well, only 840 m to go. There are a few very picturesque spots with old bridges, sloping pebbled paths and a fantastic view of the twin domes of the town (although the light is too bright at this time today to do them justice) before we reach the bottom of the path and the car. Wow what an amazing couple of hours!

Back to the hotel to rendevous with Michael who has had a lovely couple of hours wandering the town. We feel that we had better try another place for dinner tonight - not that we have nt enjoyed our last two meals, but tonight we are in the mood for something a little more casual. The Artis Restorante and Pizzeria is just down the road from the hotel. I had Scallopine and Michael had a Calzone (Ham, tomato, artichoke and mushroom) but the awards tonight went to the Breaded Perch (From the Lake) and Pommes Frites (fish'n'chips a la Helen) that Helen had. Bloody beautiful, mate! It reminder her of all the fish that her Dad and uncles used to catch on a Sunday morning when they lived at Wynnum, Manly in Brisbane. In fact, it was so good that I ordered a portion after my veal! Real lemon. Potato and carrot salad with home made mayonnaise. Yep. Bloody beautiful.