We continued to Dunedin Railway Station and what an impressive building it is! It took over twenty years to build , finally reaching completion in 1906.
The green, yellow and cream majolica tiles were made especially by Royal Doulton and the mosaic floor celebrating the steam engine has more than 700,000 tiny porcelain tiles!
I have seen railway stations of wondrous architectural significance but none to equate with Dunedin. On the first floor two stained glass windows depict approaching trains with headlights on.
The station only now caters for two to three heritage train trips including the Taiere Gorge which we hope to take tomorrow.
We returned and in Stuart Street spied the Law Courts Hotel where Queen Elizabeth's stayed on her visit to NZ in 1954. It had the Jury Room
Bar and Wig and Pen restaurant but the hotel had seen better days !
We also saw the Cadbury facility which gives guided tours of he factory but we refrained.
Dunedin is the largest city in the southern half of the South Island., with a population of 120,00. The city has suffered on recent years The south appears to rely o n tourism.
Dunedin was a Scottish settlement planned in the 1840s. In 1848 the first emigrant ship arrived lead by Captain Carghill. and Thomas Burns, nephew of the poet Robert Burns. The Irish and the English followed but the Scots had put their stamp on the area.
In 1851 gold was discovered 100km west of Dunedin and the gold rush began. The gold rush subsided in the 1870s and shipping became the mainstay of the economy. in addition to railways and farming. However with the iopening of the Panama Canal in 1914 Auckland was favoured over Dundee.
This morning we took the Taiere Gorge rail journey from Dunedin to Pukerangi.
The 77 km stretches northwest from Dunedin It was constructed between 1879 and 1921 and I originally went from
Dunedin to Cromwell - 235 Km. today it is run by a Trust who wanted to keep the line open after NZ National Railways closed the line. It is a spectacular journey up through the Gorge .
We returned to Dunedin and commenced our hjourney to Oamaru to see the penguins. En route we had glimpses of the western coast equally as scenic as the south and east coasts.
En route we stopped to see the Moeraki Boulders partially submerged in the sand with honey combed centres They were part of the cliff but as the cliff eroded the boulders were revealed. -they were formed around a central core of carbonate crystals and attracted minerals from their surroundings 60 million years ago when accumulations of shell and plant fragments accumulated on the sea floor - large ones 2 metres across and smaller pellets are to be seen.
We continued to Oamaru, where the old centre is a feast of Whitestone buildings of Victorian vintage.
And the now defiunct Railway Station except for a few heritage trips!
We're off to see the penguins tonight but the don't arrive until 7pm ...... more tomorrow.
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