Yellow Fish cruises: 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.