Day 2: to Dunedin

It was raining when we left Mt Cook. As we got further from the mountains the rain gradually stopped and it was merely a cloudy overcast day. We stopped in Kurow, about midway in the map above, for coffee and for me a scone. With the Scottish heritage here there are a nice variety of scones. Here is the Main Street of Kurow.

We met these fellow riders in the cafe, two Kiwis and an Aussie. Everyone here is so friendly. In a small town before Kurow we needed gasoline and the only station was one with no attendant. It would not take our credit cards or debit cards. A local New Zealander happened to be there in his motorhome. He tried to help us and in the end offered to put our gas on his card and we gave him US dollars. Super friendly and helpful.

We continued riding till we got to the coast near Oamuru. Here are a couple of coastline pics.

We continued down the coast till we came to the town of Dunedin, which is a port and also university town. We headed out onto a peninsula towards the hotel where we would be staying, Larnach Castle. Here is a pic looking back at at Dunedin, at the end of an inlet, a nice sheltered harbor.

Here is a map showing how long the inlet is, with Dunedin at the left, and Larnach Castle almost half way out the inlet.

Here is a pic as we headed out along the peninsula.

After riding through some beautiful areas we arrived at Larnach Castle. It was built by an Aussie who immigrated to New Zealand and became very successful in the building materials business. He built the Castle in the 1870's to showcase his building materials and to live in. This is where we are spending the night.

Our three course dinner was in the castle at this long table. We dined next to some very fun and entertaining Aussies in their early eighties. I hope I'm as active as they are when I'm their age. David at the left is 84 and body surfs about five days a week with friends, golfs, travels, and is hilarious.

Here are some pics of the inside of the castle.

After a very enjoyable dinner with our new Aussie friends it was time for bed.