A Trip to Australia and New Zealand
Dunedin & the Otago Penninsula
After cruising all night we arrived in our first port of call at around seven in the morning and were birthed in Port Chalmers by eight o'clock. Following a quick breakfast, we disembarked and took a complimentary shuttle service into the nearby town of Dunedin. Dunedin was settled by the Scots in the nineteenth century and has the very strong feel of their homeland. Even the weather cooperated with a chill to the air, dark clouds covering the sky and a bit of sporadic drizzle. It was fitting that the morning was dour, gray and damp. The name Dunedin is the Celtic version of Edinburgh and the town is said to be the furthest place in the world that a Scott could get away from London. We walked around town, admired the churches, the public buildings, and the town's prize railway station, complete with it's thousands of Delft tiles. In the 1860s gold was discovered in the area and a great deal of wealth flowed into the city. We spent an hour or more in the Settler's Museum learning about the traditions and lives of the early settlers.
After lunch back in the ship, we headed out on an organized tour to see some yellow eyed penguins. Rare and endangered, these exotic birds are only found on the Otago Peninsula and a few of the nearby islands. The weather obligingly changed from gray drizzle to bright sunshine now that we had been given the Scottish experience and were returning to our New Zealand vacation. The bus ride took about an hour and was a delightful tour of some exquisitely beautiful pasture land complete with numerous flocks of extremely picturesque New Zealand sheep on green hillsides sloping away to magnificent ocean vistas. Following a short orientation at the private penguin refuge, we visited the penguin hospital which had one yellow eyed patient. Thankfully, we learned that she was doing very well and would be returning to the wild in the next few days. Following that we bused a short distance to the beach and entered a rather extensive network of tunnels and bunkers which permitted us to get very close to the birds without disturbing them. Although most of the adults were out fishing we did get to see four youngsters and a couple of adults. The tour was pricey but worth it, particularly since the proceeds from the fees went to support the birds. It was well worth the money.
