Saturday 5 April 2025

An early morning start today and off to the Dunedin Farmers’ Market. This was a bit small but an excellent range of high quality fruit, vegetables and other goodies, including a pastie for Flashy and a shared Chinese spicy crepe from the Chinese guy.

Albert Einstein once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Well, after the market, we went bike riding again. 30kms. Einstein was right. So, for Flashy – never again. It was so painful, he can’t recall enough to comment on the ride.

That evening, after some pain relief, we went to dinner at Larnach Castle, 2 kms up the road from our cottage. The deal was a shared table of 18 pax and four mystery courses chosen by chef, to reflect NZ cuisine.

The table was full and our immediate dining companions were a French couple our age and an ‘almost retired’ Kiwi couple. The castle itself was wonderfully restored in the foreboding Scottish style and the staff were mostly foreign lasses.

Unfortunately, despite well chosen ingredients like tuna and lamb from the local waters and paddocks, the execution was not brilliant. As a result, while acceptable, it was a bit 1980’sish. Over cooked tuna and lamb and average plating. After inquiring about wine, Flashy was asked, in a funny way, “would you like wine?” “Bloody hell, certainly!” was the resounding call from our end of the table. Strange that a) they wouldn’t tell you that wine was available and b) given that they actually charge for drinks, that they wouldn’t give you a drink menu. We went with the flow and just said match the food with wine. A bit strange to have a sparkling white, in an old fashioned crystal coupe, served with the tuna entrée. But a fun and entertaining night, nonetheless.

Spicy Chinese crepe
Amazing Dunedin Railway Station (1904)
Very fancy outside of the railway station in Flemish Renaissance architecture.
Entrance to Larnach Castle


Larnach Castle
Our French dining companions.

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