Choice between Otago Peninsula or Taieri Gorge
 

Trying to choose my onshore excursions for upcoming cruise and cant decide between Taieri Gorge Train Ride or Otago Peninsula. Both include a tour of Larnach Castle at the end. Any suggestions

Depends on your interests.

Taieri Gorge requires no physical effort at all and is inland.

Otago Peninsula features wildlife and coastal scenery.

Personally, I don't think Lanarch Castle is all that great especially if you've traveled elsewhere.

Are you limited to what the cruise ship offers you? You should be able to book either atrraction independently (especially Taieri Gorge). Maybe something else in central Dunedin would be of more interest than Lanarch Castle.

We are not limited but all the reports I have read here say Dunedin is not all that unique and that out of town trips are bette in that area.
Which would I be most disappointed to have missed?

On a recent trip to NZ, Dunedin was our favorite big city! We really enjoyed the tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, the Otago Museum (super interesting!) and driving up Baldwin Street (the world's steepest street).

Granted, I was with a nine year old, but the many adults on the Cadbury tour seemed to have a great time. In fact, we met a couple of ladies from a docked cruise ship and they said they'd saved a lot of money by booking their Cadbury tour direct with Cadbury and catching a taxi there rather than booking through the cruise. Once at Cadbury you're pretty much in the center of town and within walking distance of lots of restaurants for lunch.

If beer is your thing, the Speigts (sp?) brewery also does tours.

So, that's my opinion, for what's it's worth - don't discount Dunedin, it's well worth a visit!

Can I offer two suggestions for Dunedin? One is the Settlers' Museum and the other is the Dunedin Botanical Gardens which were really lovely when we were there in November.

I'm not a huge fan of Dunedin, but I love chocolate, so Cadbury was a big draw for me too. We also enjoyed Baldwin Street, but we walked it. Had to work off all those calories, no?

Larnach Castle didn't impress me all that much, although it might have been interesting to stay there.

I did enjoy the Royal Albatross Center, the Speights brewery tour and the train station though.

I quite enjoyed Dunedin...the Railway Station, First Church of Otago and its crypt (we were researching family names), Botanical Gardens, etc.
I would like to see Otago Peninsula or even stay a night out there...oh well next trip.
I can't remember the name of the main shopping/cafe/restaurant street as it led to the Cathedral, but about half way along the street, we found a small laneway running off to the left, and there was a small cafe, with sack loads of coffee beans. They served lunches, cafes, coffee etc, but we felt they had the best coffee in the south island. The creama was perfect, and coffee bean flavour was to die for.

Hey Tropo -

Where's that trip report?

Lots of good ideas about Dunedin. I also liked the Cadbury tour (great for chocoholics and seeing the insides of a vintage manufacturing plant), the Speights tour (includes beer tasting at the end, all you can drink but there's a time limit). Olveston House is probably as interesting as Lanarch Castle. The Otago Museum is really good if you like Natural History.

The main Street is George Street and it runs to the Octagon. Around the corner from the Octagon is Mazagram on upper Moray Place. They roast their own beans and supply a lot of the Dunedin coffee shops.

So Im getting the feeling here that the concesus might be to stay in Dunedin. Is the train trip not stunning?

I enjoyed the train trip, and the scenery is quite different than what you've seen elsewhere in NZ (it goes thru the Rock and Pillar ranges). If you've just been cruising rather than traveling thru NZ it might be worthwhile. It's also very good for a rainy day. You could probably find some photos if you googled. (Sorry, mine are pre-digital or I'd post a link).

I was recommending central Dunedin over Lanarch Castle.

mlgb - your right, thats the name of cafe, thank you.