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Otago Peninsula – One of New Zealand’s Finest Day Trips

Dale Dunlop The Maritime Explorer

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Wednesday, June 11th, 2025

In the last post on this Adventures Abroad tour of New Zealand we landed in the southern city of Dunedin which is the gateway to one of New Zealand’s must visit places, the Otago Peninsula. In this post we’ll spend the day exploring Otago starting with a visit to New Zealand’s only castle and following it up with a visit to Taiaroa Head which we’ll explore by land and sea. If you want to see penguins, fur seals, albatross and more, this is the trip for you, so please come along.

Here is a map of the Otago Peninsula. Our first stop will be at Larnach Castle which sits on one of the highest points on the peninsula about 30 minutes from Dunedin. It is #20 on this map. After that we’ll go to the very tip of the peninsula, Taiaroa Head.

Larnach Castle

One doesn’t usually associate New Zealand with castles and for good reason – there’s only the one, Larnach Castle  and it has a fascinating history. It was the brainchild of William Larnach, one of New Zealand’s most interesting and controversial figures. Born in Australia, he came to Dunedin in 1867 to run the Bank of Otago and through successful land speculation and other investments soon became one of the richest men in the country. In 1871 he had workmen begin on on what became Larnach Castle, although he called it only ‘The Camp’ and what a camp it became. It took three years to complete and another twelve to get the interior to the point that he and his wife Eliza could say it was finally complete. Materials were imported from as far away as Italy, France, England and Wales with no expense spared.

Six children were born to William and Eliza before she died at only 38. He then married Eliza’s half sister Mary who also died at age 38. Not taking any chances Larnach then married the much younger Constance deBathe Brandon. With similarities to one Donald Trump, Larnach went through a number of financial meltdowns, was a successful and then unsuccessful and successful again politician. His marriage to the young ‘Conny’ was the talk of much speculation including that she was having it off with Larnarch’s youngest son Douglas. He ended it all by locking himself in a room in the New Zealand Parliament building (which we visited earlier on this tour), and blowing his brains out with a revolver. He failed to leave a will which resulted in a legal struggle between the children and Conny that rivalled that of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce in Dickens Bleak House. The end result was the sale of Larnach Castle in 1906 to the New Zealand government for a mere fraction of what it cost to build. It was used for shell shocked WWI Kiwis and then abandoned in 1918. It gradually deteriorated to the point that its ballroom became a sheep pen.

In 1967 it was purchased by the Barker family who were then and still are the proprietors of Barker’s of Geraldine, a food emporium which we will visit later on this tour. Since that time they have fully restored the castle and added a 35 acre garden that is an attraction in its own right.

OK, with that introduction let’s visit the castle and grounds. This is our tour leader Chris Tripodi with our Larnach Castle guide.

I could do an entire post on this Otago attraction, but will confine it to this gallery and a few more photos. Double click to open one and double click again to enlarge.

There is one room that is quite different from the others. You could easily miss it because it’s hidden behind drapery on the third floor. Pushing aside the drapes you come into a small room where Conny’s wedding dress is on display.

Then you look up and see this ethereal zombie-like presence that I presume is the ghost or at least eminence of Constance. It’s both creepy and entrancing at the same time and I think really sums up the tragic undoing of this place after William’s death.

The highlight for me of visiting the interior of Larnach Castle were the views of the Otago Peninsula from the outdoor parapet at the very top. This is the view towards the entrance to Otago Harbour. Pretty spectacular.

As I noted, the castle is not the only reason to visit this place. The gardens are at least as interesting with an Alice in Wonderland theme. Here she is holding the flamingo that she used as a croquet mallet.

Once again I’ll highlight the gardens with a gallery rather than individual photos.

It’s time to leave this manmade wonderland and visit some of Mother Nature’s handiwork on the Otago Peninsula

Taiaroa Head

Following a very scenic drive along the north side of the Otago Peninsula we arrive at the very tip where a short walk takes us down to this view of Taiaroa Head and its lighthouse. By now you’ll realize that lighthouses are becoming quite the theme on this New Zealand tour.

We spend some time exploring the Royal Albatross Centre and learn that New Zealand’s only mainland albatross colony is located just a short walk away. We will get a look at it from the water later today.

A short distance from here we come to Nature’s Wonders, where the Reid family has dedicated itself to restoring and preserving 650 acres of headland on the Otago Peninsula that is home to the world’s rarest penguin, the yellow-eyed or hoiho in Maori. We board a small bus that takes us on a rugged road past a WWII bunker that is not dissimilar to those that can be found around the entrance to Halifax Harbour.

Our destination is small cove which is shared as a breeding ground for both fur seals and little aka blue penguins. We can see the seals close up like this mother suckling her pup.

While I am looking down at the fur seal colony I feel something poke my leg and kind of startled, I look down to see one of the cutest sights imaginable. This baby fur seal apparently wants me to adopt him. The Reid’s don’t encourage interaction between humans and animals, but nobody told that to this little guy. However, he can hear his real mother calling and waddles away to reunite with her.

Now here’s something I didn’t know and I hope it doesn’t ruin this post for you. Male sea lions will kill and eat fur seal pups and that is exactly what happened to one just the day before, so wandering off is not a good idea.

Near this same spot there are some blue penguin nesting sites and you can get a real close look at this smallest of all penguin species. The only other time I saw a blue penguin this up close, it was stuffed.

From here our guide takes us to overlooks to two beaches that are have been totally off limits to humans for decades.

These are the nesting grounds of the yellow-eyed penguin and the guide points one out, but it’s so far away that I cannot get a decent photo so you’ll have to settle for this instead.

Yellow-Eyed Penguin 

Despite the efforts of the Reid’s and the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust to restore the breeding habitat on the Otago Peninsula, there are real fears that it might not be enough to save this beautiful bird from extinction. Even if it was from half a mile away, it was a privilege to add the rarest of all penguins to my life list.

The Albatross Express on Otago Harbour

Our next stop was the wharf on the inner Otago Harbour where we boarded another of the Nature’s Wonders attractions, the Albatross Express which will take us out past Taiaroa Head for this view of the lighthouse from the water. However, the real highlight of this boat trips was the birds. Let’s start with this colony of red-billed gulls.

And how about Otago’s very own Otago shags, one of the prettiest of the many cormorant species.

And on a day where there has been one highlight after another, the Northern Royal Albatross, one of the largest birds in the world, tops the charts. With a wingspan of up to ten feet you cannot realize just how big and magnificent these birds are until you see one close up as we did on this tour.

We came within a few yards of this adult and then really got a look when he took off, like the B-52 of birds.

As I mentioned earlier, these birds breed on Taiaroa Head and we were able to get a clear view of some of the nests. This was an especially big deal for our guide Chris because he had been following a Cornell web cam from this very spot, watching first an egg and then a hatchling and following its progress to a fledgling. If you take this tour in future, be sure to look up this web cam and it will really enhance this boat trip for you.

As we headed back to the wharf we did see a huge adult male sea lion who may well have been the fur seal murderer.

We also saw this sight which  got my hackles up because it was so out of scale with the beauty of Otago Harbour and all it has to offer.

On the way back to Dunedin we made an unplanned stop that was really the topper for what had been an unforgettable day. I’ve noted in earlier posts the extra zest our South Island guide and driver Ian Hodgkinson has added to this Adventures Abroad tour. Here is another example. Whizzing by a sheep farm, he noticed something going on he thought we might like to see and turned up a narrow lane that ended at a series of pens and a barn. He hopped out and went inside. A minute later he came out and asked if we’d like to witness a sheep shearing. The answer of course was yes. I have been fascinated with sheep shearing since watching the 1960 movie The Sundowners that featured a sheep shearing contest. Now I could actually see how fast a sheep could be sheared.

Here’s the before picture.

And the after.

And here’s the in between with the sheep looking right at the camera.

Ian explained that in New Zealand, Maori families have come to specialize in this craft and go from farm to farm during shearing season. In this case there were two couples with the men shearing and the women gathering up and baling the wool.

And yes they could shear a sheep in 30 seconds or less. It was something amazing to watch and a perfect coda to what was one of the best days not only on this tour, but on any AA tour I have ever been on. Thanks Chris, Ian and the cooperative albatross.

In the next post we’ll visit a beach famous for its boulders and a town where steampunk is a real deal. See you there.