South Island - New Zealand - Wednesday 30th March, 2016

This morning we made our quickest start to the day in order to be at the Dunedin Train Station by 9:15 am for our trip on the Taieri Gorge Railway. We arrived with plenty of time, which allowed us to look around this 100 + year old Railway Station. The entrance hall has 725,000 half square inch tiles on the floor. 

After boarding the old carriage and taking our seats we started the 2 hour journey. 

Commencing in the city it winds its way through suburbia and then into farmland, before running alongside the Taieri River to the town of Pukerangi. The workmanship and engineering involved in building this train line is remarkable. It has been described as one of the worlds great train rides and it didn't let us down.

Once the train delivered us back to Dunedin we made a quick stop at the souvenir shop before heading out to Lanarch Castle.

 A politician built this for his wife but she died and so did her sister, whom he had married as his second wife. His third wife was rumoured to be having an affair with his son and so he shot himself. It has been a lot of things since that time but in 1967 the current owners built it and have maintained it in all its current splendour. The gardens really are something to behold and must take a team of Gardeners to maintain.

 It also had great views out across the Otago Peninsula and we had a coffee in the ballroom, come cafe.

From there we headed south along the scenic coastal route to the town of Balclutha and have pulled into a mobile van park. The free camping around here seems to be at a premium but there is a lot more on the west coast.