Kaikoura to Lanarch Castle in Dunedin
We made it to Lanarch Castle on the Otago Peninsula. We left our room in Kaikoura at 6 am, stopped to grab a flat white coffee in a takeaway cup and headed south on Route 1. Like California’s costal highway 1, this is a winding road that is a bit slow going. We went through two quite narrow tunnels that were a bit scary, but mostly the drive was without traffic at that time of the morning on a Sunday. Most motorists are probably still in bed since they were watching the All Blacks rugby team win the semi-finals at 3 am.
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| Leaving Kaikoura |
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| Narrow tunnel just south of Kaikoura |
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| Christchurch |
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| Christchurch |
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| Christchurch |
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| Christchurch |
We got off the highway to drive through Christchurch to see how they were recovering from their severe earthquake damage sustained on February 11, 2011. Even though the earthquake registered on 6.3 on the Richter Scale, there was severe liquefaction of the soil and much of the downtown was destroyed. As we drove by today, there is still much to be done in terms of rebuilding their infrastructure and buildings.
In a town called St. Andrews, we ate lunch at a great place called the Masonic Hotel (42 Waimate Highway). It is owned by a couple who do all of the hotel jobs, including the bar, cooking and hotel duties. The husband is a retired master plumber who became a widower. He met his wife who was a home health nurse and who was in an abusive relationship. They are now are happily married to each other and do an amazing job. We ordered the house hamburger that was gigantic and again, it had a fried egg, beet root, salad, relish and cheese. I would highly recommend stopping at this place if you travel down Route 1.
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| A Great Place to Eat! |
In Omaru, there is a penguin colony, but as we wanted to get to Lanarch Castle, we did not stop. Since the travel time from Kaikoura was so long, and the distance was 548 kilometers, I might recommend stopping in either Omaru or Timaru for the evening if you have extra travel time.
We arrived at the castle at about 3 pm. It is 10 kilometers from Dunedin, but it is well worth the drive. Our room was called The Rhododendron Room and had a balcony with a great view of the water. Internet was free and of great speed.
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| View from room |
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| Interesting Wallpaper |
We took a tour of Lanarch Castle with a free audio device to enhance the tour. Following the castle tour, Earline and I toured the great English gardens that were immaculate.
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| Lanarch Castle |
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| Lanarch Castle |
The castle tour:
Staircase carved from a solid piece of Kaouri wood
One of three bathtubs carved from solid granite and weighing several tones each.
We had dinner in the castle’s dining room with an included three course meal. It was quite special and there was only one other couple dining in the castle with us. I got to play one of the antique pianos before dinner.
We move onward tomorrow to Te Anau for our visit to the Milford Sound on Tuesday.
When does your Kiwi citizenship begin?
ReplyDeleteWhat does NZ make per hour, as a percent of USA?
What are Kiwis (and AnZac's in general) like, as friends?
Hi Ann, I know when I was investigating working there as a heart surgeon, the average NZ wage was about $7500 US dollars and a heart surgeon was making about $70,000 NZD. Even though that was nearly a 10:1 ratio, with this higher tax rates, I could not have afforded to keep my house in the USA and work there. However, the people seem to do quite well down in NZ and they do not appear to be in poverty. The quality of life looks great! They are the nicest people. I love them.
ReplyDeleteWhat does a Kiwi CV surgeon make (per hour), compared to USA?
ReplyDeleteThe yearly pay does not make sense to compare, since countries vary so much on number of hours worked, night time sleep deprived, weekend and holiday work required. USA doctors are not paid any thing extra for overtime, overnight, weekend or holidays worked. Health and family status suffers, with no compensation.
Unlike government employees.
Hopefully, a Kiwi Cardiac Surgeon will respond to your questions. I would only be guessing at this point in time. However, from conferences I have attended, they seem to not be working excessive hours as a specialist.
ReplyDelete