Once again James Cook was in Dunedin (well the area of Dunedin) in early 1770. Much later in 1848 The Lay Association of the Free Church of Scotland founded Dunedin (with the help of Thomas Burns, Robert Burns's nephew) as the principal town of its Scottish settlement (after the 1843 split of the Scottish church). The name of 'Dunedin' originates from the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh—Dùn Èideann. Charles Kettle, Dunedin's surveyor, was instructed to copy the characteristics of Edinburgh, in the construction of Dunedin so it has some recognisable styles of architecture. His plan took little if any account of the very hilly terrain (Peter can confirm this as he went for a couple of runs and couldn’t find anywhere flat except the harbour area), and it’s most famous result is Baldwin Street, recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the steepest street in the world. Sid did not want to climb that so we let him of. But I did walk up it. I wonder how the residents manage in snowy weather? The statistics of Baldwin Street are as follows; 350 m long, rising from 30m to 100 m above sea level with an average gradient of around 1:5 but with a maximum of 1:2.86. Annually a charity event involves rolling Cadbury’s chocolate oranges (there is a Cadbury’s factory in town) down the street. That sounds like fun.

The first evening in Dunedin we stayed in at the campsite, which was quite busy, and as we sat after dinner Peter was drawn to the neighbouring vehicle where they were sitting reading with a bottle of wine and candle on the table and he asked why we weren’t that civilised. I pointed out he had a cup of tea and a Satsuma what else did he want!

We went on a walking city tour and saw lots of nice old buildings but the railway station, built in the Edwardian Baroque style, was the best. From here we caught a nice old train up through the Taieri Gorge to a very, and I emphasise very small and isolated town called Middlemarch (No wonder they wanted a railway line). It is only a tourist trip now but used to serve the inland community and bring fresh produce and livestock to Dunedin. It is a very scenic 77Km ride, in part along the very steep and narrow Taieri Gorge with 12 tunnels, over 60 bridges and some impressive viaducts (some curved). Wingatui viaduct (197m long and 47m high) is one of the largest wrought iron structures in the Southern Hemisphere. Construction began in 1879 (reached Middlemarch in 1891) but not finished until 1921.

The second day we went to the Otago Peninsula, a very long peninsula, at the end of which is an Albatross and Blue Penguin colony, more about that in a minute. The sun was shining and it was quite warm so on the way we stopped in at NZ’s only castle; Larnach castle. It was built by William James Mudie Larnach, (of Scottish descent but born in Australia). In 1867 he became manager of the Bank of Otago in Dunedin, which serviced the extensive goldfields. He had his fingers in many pies such as a merchant empire, banking, shipping, farming, landholding, politics and... speculation so was not short of a penny or two. He was even in the NZ government for over 25 years. A story is told that he was riding on the peninsula and liked it so much that he decided to build a house there. It has wonderful panoramic views of Dunedin, Otago Harbour, the Peninsula and the Pacific Ocean so I can’t blame him. To clear the land he put pegs into the volcanic rock and poured salt water on them to split the rock. 200 men spent three years building the Castle and a load more European craftsmen spent another 12 years decorating the interior. Despite all this he was not a happy man and committed suicide in the NZ parliament in 1898, and I am not surprised when you hear his family history. His first wife Eliza had six children - Donald, Douglas, Kate, Colleen, Alice and Gladys and died at 38 when the youngest was still a baby. He then married Eliza's half sister Mary. The children didn’t like or trust her. Larnach put the castle and estate into her name for tax purposes. She died after 5 years leaving the castle and estate to the children. Larnach was not at all happy about this and got them all to sign it back to him. He then had big financial problems but still had time to marry a much younger lady Constance, who the children also didn’t like, except Donald who had an affair with her. On top of all this the children caused no end of problems and his favourite daughter died in an accident. It was obviously all too much for him. After much legal arguing the Castle was sold in 1906.

After this we visited the Albatross centre and saw about 10 or so birds. They are not hard to see as they are huge with a wing span of around 3 metres and dwarf the local seagulls. They can fly at speeds of 75MPH and live for over 30years. Alfred Hitchcock’s film 'Birds’ would have been terrifying if it had featured Albatrosses, but they look like gentle giants of the bird world. Their landing is not the most elegant. They spend the first 5 years of their lives at sea only landing on water to sleep and feed. They were in the courting phase when we visited so there was a lot of activity (I won’t say any more on that).

A bit later we went down onto the beach to wait for the arrival of the Blue Penguins. This was a lot more successful than our last Penguin viewing. They are the world’s smallest penguin standing just over 25 cm. They are a lovely slate-blue with white tummy’s and they are cute very, very cute. They are found all around New Zealand's coastline. We didn’t have to wait long before they arrived coming onto the beach in groups of 30 or so and then scurrying up the rocks and into the grass. So cute!

Someone said to me what are you going to do for 2 months in NZ? Well we have been busy every day and yesterday was no exception. We managed to fit in a nice old house, a walk up the steepest road, a steam train trip, visit to museum and cinema.

Olveston House like Larnach castle was like stepping back into an old English house so I had a great time. It was built for businessman David Theomin and his family between 1904 and 1906. The design, by English architect Sir Ernest George, was a Jacobean-style mansion seasoned with the influences of the English Arts and Crafts movement. The Theomins were great collectors and the house was full of stuff from all over the world. I was especially taken with some Tiffany glass. The Theomins had two children but no grandchildren and on her death in 1966 the daughter left the entire house and contents to Dunedin.

Returning home for the bank holiday weekend was a special seam engine. It is one of only 6 preserved JA locomotives made between 1946 and 1956 in Dunedin (51 made in total). This one JA 1240 "Jessica" was kept by Blenheim man Peter Coleman in his garden (Boys and their toys taken to excess I think) until his death and is now part of a Trust. The local paper reported it was being used in the making of a film starring Rachael Wiesz. She was reported to be in the area with her husband Daniel Craig (of James Bond fame). We haven’t spotted them in any of the campsites! The Trust were running short trips with her (the train not Rachael) so of we went. You can’t actually see much in a carriage except a lot of steam and we might have been better of standing on one of the bridges she went under. But it was fun.