Campervan Hire in Dunedin

New Zealand’s longest tourist rail ride, the Taieri Gorge Railway departs from historical Flemish Renaissance styled Dunedin Station, once the country’s busiest, with up to a hundred trains daily. Today, this building with its distinctive 37-metre clocktower serves a variety of functions, including a departure point for a four-hour return journey on the rails, that combines compelling history with dramatic scenery. The route follows the Taieri River into a deep and narrow gorge, travelling through ten tunnels and over numerous bridges and viaducts, including the southern hemisphere’s largest wrought iron structure.

Built in the years 1904-06 as a family home for a local merchant and philanthropist David Theomin, this 35-room Jacobean-style mansion is home to fine art, furniture, and artefacts collected from David’s travels around the world. His daughter Dorothy lived in the ‘English country house in the city’ until 1966, when it was gifted, along with the family’s collected contents, to the city of Dunedin. Initially equipped with the latest technology of the day: central heating, lift, and telephone system, the home is richly decorated with bronze statues, cloisonne, ivory and jade – a total of 240 artworks hang on the walls.

Rising 393 metres above Dunedin and just a few miles out of the city centre, Signal Hill contains a nature reserve and delivers panoramic views over the city and harbour. A secondary summit at 329 metres houses a monument honouring the country’s centennial in 1940. It contains large stone from Edinburgh, Scotland – Dunedin’s sister city. 9.3 miles of walking tracks and mountain bike trails make the peak a popular and easily-accessed attraction.

Accessed through a hand-carved tunnel built in the 1970’s, this sheltered and secluded beach is located 4.6 miles from the Dunedin city centre. Today, the beach is a quieter alternative to nearby St Clair.

Upon the headland, at the end of the Otago Peninsula, lies an 1864 lighthouse and since 1919, a rare colony of 100 Northern Royal albatrosses – the only one on an inhabited mainland. The headland was once the home of several whaling stations, while today the Royal Albatross Centre provides daily tours and a unique chance to observe the birds at close range. Due to their presence, the lighthouse is not open to the public.