Si's Year Out! (Plus Europe! Plus Morocco!): Living Like a King on the Otago Peninsula!

The Otago Peninsula is full of super-accessible wildlife that includes penguins, seals, sea lions and lots of rare birds. Our plan was to go visit a colony of very rare yellow-eyed penguins then go to the end of the peninsula to see the huge albatrosses that soar over to nest at the cliffs edge and then move on sharpish...that 'was' the plan, until we came across Larnach Castle!

The castle is the only castle on NZ and 'was built in 1871 by William Larnach, merchant baron and politician, for his beloved first wife Eliza'. After a period where it lay derelict, it was restored by the Barker Family, who own it today. Upon visiting the castle we were surprised to learn that a small number of people can stay the night at the castle in either 'the lodge', a purpose built block of twelve rooms each decorated individually with stunning views, or 'the stables', rooms converted from old stable rooms. Our budget didn't quite stretch to the lodge rooms (it didn't REALLY stretch to the stables either) so we took a stable room. The room was huge and very swish on the inside but from the outside looked just like a load of stables! The best part of it all was that (only) guests staying at the castle were allowed to dine right in the main dining hall of the actual main castle building. We had the most amazing four course meal and were greeted by a hostess, served by a butler and waited on hand and foot!! All this in the most extravagant dining room you could ever imagine! Was nice to live like a king, even if it only was for one day!

The next day we went to the penguin reserve to see the yellow-eyed penguins. We darted through small tunnels that would occasionally pop out into little viewing huts to see the penguins without scaring them. They were about 60cm tall, much bigger than the ones I'd seen in Australia, had a big yellow 'hair band' and looked like they were wearing makeup! After that we went to see the albatrosses. Apparently you usually see one or two an hour if you are lucky but because it was a really windy day (they need very windy conditions to fly as they are so big) there were loads gliding around! They can have a wingspan of over 3m and just glide along majestically in the breeze...

Next it was the long, but scenic, drive to Christchurch. We stayed the night in a small town called Geraldine ready to explore the biggest city on the South Island the following day.