Day 88: Port Chalmers / Dunedin

The last time we were in Port Chalmers/ Dunedin (Port Chalmers is the location of Port Otago, where the cruise ship is berthed; Dunedin is the nearby town of about 125,000 people), we visited the famous Dunedin Railway Station and booked a train trip for today. We chose to take the Seasider, a 2-2.5 hour round trip ride along the northern coast of Otago Harbour and the coastal beaches northeast of Port Chalmers. Our scheduled trip was at 11:15am from the Dunedin Railway Station, which should have given us plenty of time to get from Port Chalmers to Dunedin, but twice in our two seasons here the ship has been delayed in getting clearance from the local authorities for passengers to go ashore. We weren’t taking any chances. 

We grabbed a quick breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet, and were sitting in the Piazza on Deck 5 awaiting the announcement we could go ashore. Today it was fairly timely, but not early enough for us to catch the 8:15am local bus to Dunedin. Because it was Saturday, the bus runs only one time each hour, but an enterprising tour operator had his bus right at the city bus stop and took us to Dunedin for NZ $6pp. This was between the price of the local bus and the transfer sold in the port terminal (NZ $15 round trip). 

The Dunedin Railway Station... with no buses in front of it!

The clock tower

The station was opened in 1904

I was so excited when we first arrived at the Railway Station to see there wasn’t a bus (or several) parked in front of the it. This beautiful building is the single most photographed building in New Zealand... but unless you’re there at dawn, it’s impossible to get a photo of it with no vehicles in front of it. But G was talking with an employee who works at the reservation desk inside the station and learned that this will soon be changing. In about another month or so, the front of the station will be closed off to all but pedestrian traffic. This is excellent news.

We were at the Railway Station in plenty of time, and took the opportunity to check out the Farmers Market taking place next door. There was some beautiful organic produce and Manuka honey, but I had to settle for an apple of a variety I’d never had before. 

Saturday mornings, a Farmers Market operates at one end of the Railway Station. 

They expected 12000 people to visit the market today

I bought a Pacific Rose Apple for about US 30 cents.

We had booked the Seasider train the last time we were in Dunedin and then kept an eye on the weather. It was great today. 

We were checked in early for our train ride, and were assigned two excellent seats on the train. The train left right on time and we first rode through Dunedin and then along the Otago Harbour to Port Chalmers, basically reversing the trip we had just made on the bus. 

Pine logs, a New Zealand port staple, at Port Otago

After we left Port Chalmers, we passed through several tunnels (not my favorite part). The longest one was nearly a mile long, when the train went through the hills between the harbor and the ocean. 

A pine tree farm

Most farmed trees in New Zealand are Monterey pines, originally imported from California. 

Beautiful blue water and endless white sand beaches

This one is aptly named Long Beach

Dark sheep, far more rare in New Zealand than their white cousins

The Seasider turns around at Waitati

You can see the long string of white sand beaches on Google Maps

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. It was not warm today (the high was in 60s...who said it’s almost summer?), but it was mostly sunny. The last time we had done this had been largely overcast, but we’d been watching the weather for the past week. We could have cancelled without penalty until three days ago. 

Purakaunui Beach

On our return, we chose to get off the train in Port Chalmers instead of riding back to Dunedin. We were let off right behind the Iona Church, part way up the hill to the lookout at Lady Thorn Rhododendron Dell. The  rhododendrons were almost done blooming,  but the views from up there made the  climb worth the effort. 

Our historic rail car

Walking up Church Street to a lookout over Port Chalmers

Looking back down Church Street to the Iona Church

Exploring the Lady Thorn  Rhododendron Dell

Looking down on Port Chalmers

Port Otago and the Ruby Princess 

The Iona Presbyterian Church

As we walked back down to the waterfront, the Iona Church was just being unlocked. It is open from 1:30pn.to 4:30pm on cruise ship days. As we entered, we could hear the sound of Christmas carols being played on the organ. The organist was in there practicing for the Christmas service. That was quite a treat. 

  

The church’s iconic bell tower

We entered the church to the sound of the organist practicing Christmas carols (the good ones) on the pipe organ. 

We returned to the ship about 2:30pm, and were too hungry to wait until dinner to eat. Instead we had a light lunch at the Horizon Court Buffet, and then had a few more nibbles at the Elite Lounge in Skywalkers, where several of us were well entertained by the large freighter being unloaded by two huge cranes right next to our ship. We always enjoy that kind of thing. 

We went to dinner not one bit hungry. G had chicken strips from the kids menu and I had a corn cake without the egg and that left just enough room for watermelon sorbet. My favorite!

Day 9 dinner menu, page 1

Day 9 dinner menu, page 2

Day 9 dessert menu

The Princess Theater entertainment tonight was comedian Rash Ryder. His material was average but his delivery is what saved the show. It was pretty funny. 

Tomorrow, joy of joys, the alarm is turned OFF. We do have an excursion planned for Akaroa (knock on wood we get in this time), but not until noon. A noon excursion...just the way God intended them all to be. We will have breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet when we finally wake up. 

Life is good. :-)

Dunedin Port Guide, page 1

Dunedin Port Guide, page 2

Dunedin Port Guide, page 3

Dunedin Port Guide, page 4

Day 9 Princess Patter, page 1

Day 9 Princess Patter, page 2

Day 9 Princess Patter, page 3

Day  9 Princess Patter, page 4

Day 63: Port Chalmers/ Dunedin

Our arrival in Port Chalmers, the closest port to the city of Dunedin on the South Island of New Zealand, was scheduled for 8am today, and, although we could see that the Ruby Princess was close to the pier, we were not actually secured along side until well after that time. G and I had watched from breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room as the Ruby Princess had navigated its way through the tidal shoals of Otago Harbour. When we finished before the ship was cleared, we went up to the running track on Deck 19 to take in the view. The Celebrity Solstice was at the other berth, and we didn’t find out until tonight that Port Chalmers requires a minimum of 45 minutes between ship arrivals. We weren’t cleared until nearly 9:30am. To allow for the return of all Princess shore excursion passengers, we didn’t sail tonight until 7:30pm, 90 minutes late. 

Iona Church of Port Chalmers

Port Chalmers  on Otago Harbour with the beautiful Otago Peninsula in the distance

We had spectacular weather today, sunny and surprisingly warm.  While we were on Deck 19, G suggested we could climb to a lookout on a nearby hill for a better view of the harbour. Now, I have only just recently removed one foot from the grave it was in, and he is sneezing and coughing, possibly on the way to feeling worse, and he wants to go climbing hills for exercise. I didn’t say a word, but my look must have adequately conveyed my displeasure with that idea, because he next suggested we take a local bus into the nearby town of Dunedin, instead. 

All bags were checked and sniffed In the Piazza before passengers could disembark

We used Google Maps to find out where the closest bus stop was (right across from the tiny maritime museum), but we could have just followed the line of our fellow passengers doing the same thing. The port runs a shuttle to Dunedin for NZ $20 per person, and the line for that stretched through the terminal. The local bus was NZ $6 each way (about US $3.75), and, though there was a line, we all managed to get on the #14 bus that was waiting when we arrived. We made a couple of stops in Port Chalmers before the bus turned onto the same road along the coast that the port shuttle was using.

We got off the bus on Great King Street, walked down a block and turned left a block to get to the famous Dunedin Railway Station.  There we made a reservation for our next visit to take the Seasider train for a ride along the coast. We did this two years ago and enjoyed it very much.   We can cancel without penalty until 72 hours before our reserved time, by which point we’ll have a good idea what the weather will be. 

The best photo I’ve ever taken off the Dunedin Railway Station

There is typically a big bus (like the yellow one) parked right in front of the center of the station

The annuals have been planted in the manicured flower beds since we were here in October

We left the station and walked up Stuart Street to the Octagon, then walked completely around the Octagon.  The Octagon is just that- a series of streets in the shape of an Octagon. It is home to several important historic buildings constructed using stone from local quarries. Many of these buildings were built around the turn of the last century, when Dunedin was still the largest city in New Zealand. We stopped in a vegetarian cafe for lunch  (yes he did, too), and G had a cheesy pasta and I had beans and rice, seasoned in the most amazing way. 

I waited until this photo would not be blocked by people’s heads and got a truck instead🤣

The Dunedin Law Courts building

Like the Railway Station across the street, it is constructed of dark Port Chalmers breccia ornamented with Oamaru limestone. 

Many of the historic buildings in Dunedin have plaques like this one

We had lunch at this cafe

The Dunedin Town Hall on the right with

St. Paul’s Cathedral behind it on the left

Everywhere we went today, locals were coming up to us asking if we needed any help finding things or if we were enjoying their city. Several times we ended up chatting for a few minutes as they wanted to know where we were from (obviously not Australia).  One man told us his house overlooked the entrance to Otago Harbour and he had watched the Solstice and the Ruby Princess arrive this morning and would be watching as we sailed this evening.  The size of the town (about 130,000 people), the welcome we received from the locals, and the small town atmosphere made me feel like I was visiting a large Mayberry. That idea was reinforced when we spotted a store selling NZ $1 (about 65 US cents) scoops of ice cream. G couldn’t resist going in and buying one, and we sat on a bench along the street and watched the world go by as he ate it

We caught the 3.01pm bus on Great King Street, returning to Port Chalmers about 3:30 pm.  We took a few minutes to walk through the maritime museum (it is really tiny) and were back on the ship by 4pm. There was no time for a power nap, and we were cleaned up and in Skywalkers for the Elite Lounge by 4:45pm. It was there that we heard that the ship was going to be delayed leaving port, and we were sad not to be able to watch the beautiful sail away from our dinner table.

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A train from the port enters a tunnel in Port Chalmers

If it’s a South Island port, chances are good there are stacks of logs

Day 5 dinner menu, page 1

Day 5 dinner menu, page 2

Day 5 dessert menu

An announcement was made while we were at dinner that our entertainer for tonight was not going to be Peter McMahon as planned, but instead our entertainer from two nights ago, Paul Costa, back to do a new show.  We didn’t know what was up with that, but we had really enjoyed Paul‘s performance, so that was fine by us. Cruise Director Aaron filled us in before the show; apparently Paul had disembarked this morning and taken a taxi to the airport to fly home to Australia when the ship’s entertainment director received a call from Peter saying his flight to Dunedin had been delayed and he wasn’t going to make it to the ship in time. The entertainment director called Paul, still at the airport, and asked him if he could return to the ship. He put together a second show with the orchestra and it was fantastic

We walked back to the aft elevators across the Promenade Deck, just to see what was left of the beautiful Otago Peninsula off the starboard side of the ship. This being the South Island, it was still light at 9 pm and twilight-y after 10 pm. We have just completed the first of our seven ports in a row. I need to wrap this up and get some sleep. 

Dunedin Port Guide, page 1

Dunedin Port Guide, page 2

Dunedin Port Guide, page 3

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 1

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 2

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 3

Day 5 Princess Patter, page 4