Businessman William Larnach had his castle built high on the hills of the Otago Peninsula on the South Island of New Zealand between 1871 and 1885 as a residence for his family. To build the large manor home workers had to pull and haul stone up from the bottom of the hill, which is no small feat considering you could be breathless just from walking up it empty handed.

I arrived late at the Otago Peninsula Motel to check in and was dead tired from my drive down to Dunedin from Christchur...