Exciting Upcoming Season 2019/20
Wow, hasn't this year just whizzed on by? Hard to believe that it is now the beginning of the new tourism season here in Dunedin, with lots of new and exciting things, to hopefully make it one to remember.
Down at Port Otago, the gateway to Dunedin for thousands of cruise Ship passengers and crew, there has been all number of new innovations that will ensure both the safety and visitor experience will be enhanced for all that are utilising the Port.
Hopefully these innovations and the implementation of them will be seamless and we all get to benefit from them.
Up at Larnach Castle there has also been a lot happening to ensure that the visitor experience will be significantly improved upon.
A new room (the original Larnach Breakfast Room) has been unveiled following a number of months of painstaking restoration by local craftsmen and will no doubt be a wonderful asset to the Castle, and its ever increasing vistor numbers, over the coming years.
The Gift Shop has been relocated within the Castle. It is now over twice the original size and boasts a fantastic range of souvenir and giftware, showcasing both Castle and NZ influenced products.
With the Gift Shop having moved, this has made the entrance to the Castle even more welcoming, as you enter via the main Castle steps and into the castle's signature "double veranda". This space today feels enormous and adds to the experience by making the Castle feel even more grandiose than what it already felt.
Dunedin has also eperienced a major loss over the past 12 months. In July of this year it was confirmed, by The Guiness Book Of World Records nonetheless, that we had been usurped as having "The World's Steepest Street" - Baldwin Street by Ffordd Pen Llech, in Harlech, Wales.
Dunedin will not go down without a fight in attempting to retain this title, which, it seems may have had some rather dubious measurement methodology applied in its quest to wrestle the title from us.
Early next month (October), Toby Stoff, a local Dunedin Registered Surveyor (of some note it must be said), will venture across to Harlech, Wales in an attempt to prove that best practice was not followed whilst measuring the Street, and, hopefully will return, with the title well and truly back in Dunedin's hands. Apparently when measuring roads/streets best practice is to measure from the centre of the road/street which was not done on this occasion, rather it was measured from the inside of the road/street which creates a greater degree of angle than if taken from the middle of the road/street.
I hope that this makes sense to the amateur Surveyors among us?
Anyway, we will keep you posted as to the outcome. Fingers crossed it is a success for Dunedin.
Until next time - Take Care and Travel Safe!