We got up early this morning so we could take one more walk before leaving Otago Peninsula. Here is one last view of the bay.

 

Then we went back to Dunedin. I just couldn’t leave Dunedin without visiting the fabulous Railway Station.

Jan was paying for the parking meter, I passed this bicycle. I wish I could have seen the person who parked it.

 

The Dunedin Railway Station was the last of three stations which were built in Dunedin between 1873 and 1906. It is the largest and busiest railway station in New Zealand.

The station was designed in Flemish Renaissance style by the Railways Department chief architect, George Troup, and is constructed from two types of Otago Stone (a dark volcanic stone from Kokonga and a lime stone from the Oamaru district. The columns are of Aberdeen granite. It earned the nickname of, “Gingerbread George.”

On the way into the station I saw this sign. The words on the bottom of the sign were just perfect for me.

The coffee shop at the station is very cozy.

On the way out of the coffee shop I saw a sign that said, “Fresh Fruit Ice-Cream.” How could I resist an ice-cream cone at 10:15 am. Here is the man making my cone.

Doesn’t this Cherry, Boysenberry, Apricot, and Blueberry Ice-Cream cone look delicious.

 

Well it absolutely was..

The booking hall’s mosaic tile floor has almost 750,000 Minton tiles.

The Frieze out of Royal Doulton porcelain runs around the balcony.

Of course I walked up the staircase up to the second floor.

After visiting the railway station we took a short walk to the Octagon. We passed the St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral.

Then I saw a sign to a store that intrigued me. The store is called, “Seriously Twisted.” I had to go in to see the possum wool. I found some beautiful possum, merino wool and a great pattern for a scarf. Christine is holding my wool and wearing a pink scarf like the one I a going to make. It would be nice to have my knitting needles with me so I could begin knitting now.

I wish we had at least another day to spend in Dunedin and to take one of the train rides out of here. But, alas, it was time for our drive to Te Anau. What can I say except green, green, and more green. I loved the rolling hills with sheep, cows and deer. The weather kept changing and we had rain. then sun. then rain, and then sun the entire trip.

After going to the information center in Te Anau we drove to the hotel. Neither Jan not I like the place that she had booked,  It just didn’t feel right and it even smelled funny.   So even though we lost money from Booking.com, we cancelled the reservation. We found two individual shared-bath rooms at Te Anau Lakeview Kiwi Holiday Park and Motel. We are close to the lake and the city so it was a good choice. The woman at the desk also booked our boat tour of Doubtful Sound for tomorrow.

Then we walked along the lake into town to watch a movie about Fiordland National Park. The movie was shot from helicopters.   It would have been nice to have some explanatory narration of what we were seeing, but the views were beyond description.

On the way back to our place I took this photo of a statue of Quinton MacKinnon who was one of the 1^st two Europeans to travel overland from Lake Te Anau to Milford Sound. Their route became world Famous

We prepared our dinner in the shared kitchen and played Kings in the Corner before going to our separate rooms.