New Zealand's only castle

When you find out you're in the town that has New Zealand's one and only castle it would be rude not to pay it a visit. It was built in the 19th century by a settler for his wife. It has no defence purpose and was purely so he could give his wife a castle and to make her feel more at home in this new land. Because of this it is incredibly beautiful in appearance and sits high on a hill top on the Otago peninsula. It fell into disrepair until it was bought by a new family in the 60s who could see the potential in restoring the castle for their family and public to enjoy. We are very glad they did this. The information they have provided on the history of the original family is extensive and the rooms are beautifully decorated in their original style. Some rooms you could see needed attention but the money they receive from tourist views helps pay for them and the 90 staff they now employ to achieve this level of maintenance. They have even managed to buy back some of the original pieces that were in the castle but sold off at auction when it was abandoned. The weather was still not shifting so it was good to be doing something inside today. After exploring the inside which included a walk up to the top of the tower, we headed to the ballroom for some drinks and a mini afternoon tea. They were not quite English scones but they weren't bad. Luckily the rain seemed to ease so we explored the gardens while we had the chance. Our plan for the night was to stay in the same freedom camp spot we did last night so we headed back into the city once we were all castled out for the day. We decided to explore some more of the street art here and parked up in the train station for a wonder around town. The free map shows you where all the main ones are but we did stumble across a few more including a large tribute to Ed Sheeran who recently did a concert here that seemed to max out the cities tourism resources with every possible accommodation being booked up for miles on end. While we walked around town we happened to spot one of our favourite places, Nandos, and we just knew it had to be done. After a few more artworks with a couple of charity shop visits thrown in we sat down to share some much needed chicken after not having it for so long. We've also booked ourselves on to a wildlife tour for tomorrow out on the peninsula. The weather is meant to be brighter so fingers crossed we have a chance to actually dry everything out a bit and see some animals.Read more