After an uneventful and rainy drive from Christchurch to Dunedin, the first drive of any length I've done by myself, I arrived in Dunedin at about 1 pm. The rainy weather decided for me whether the day was to be spent exploring the Otago peninsula or exploring museums. The front of this postcard says it all (except the weather is far too nice).

Olveston. Not overwhelming from the outside (although certainly not too shabby), this 35 room house is a veritable museum on the inside. Mr. Theomin built the house in 1904-1906, then he spent the next decade furnishing it. He ran an import export business and apparently compulsively bought the finest things (or imitations of the finest things) everywhere he went. The tour explores 15 of the 35 rooms, virtually all of which are crammed full of objets d'art. The house shows remarkable planning: every conceivable convenience was built into the house, including a switchboard to indicate which room (or door) someone was ringing from. For the most part the decor was very tasteful, although there is the occasional display case filled with (very expensive) bric-a-brac.

Fine rugs, vases, weaponry, painting, china, etc. from all over the world. His special interests were the far East. He seems to have anticipated the world demand for fineries of all sorts. When the parents died, the daughter remained in the house, but didn't change anything. My favorite object was, of course, the revolving bookstand. I didn't get a chance to examine the titles to see if his literary tastes were on par with his artistic tastes, however there were a lot of fine leather-bound books which were at least valuable. One interesting thing I noticed is that none of the furniture seemed used, at least in the main rooms. there was a small round dining-room table that the family used, and an upstairs room that overlooked the "Grand Hall" that had well worn couches (adjoining the "pool room"). All-in-all tastefully done, but not very livable.