Up early as we watched the ship slowly come into Port Chalmers for our last stop on the cruise before our return to Sydney. The channel is narrow and tight as we backed into our berth. Very well done.
We are moored next to a log sort so lots of machines unloading log bundles. We took some video and sent it off to wee Rory to watch. He will enjoy all the action!
We decided to skip breakfast and jump on the shuttle into Dunedin. It takes about 25 minutes and the cost is charged to your room. Very slick. We noticed it is very lush looking as we drove in so I suspect they have had lots of rain here. We went by a huge stadium and even more log sorts. Lots of raw log exports here it seems.
We were dropped off downtown in the city center known as the Octagon. If you look on google maps here it's pretty obvious why it's named that! We walked around and immediately found a statue of Robbie Burns right at the center. It was in front of Saint Paul’s Anglican Cathedral which was stunning in itself.
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| St Paul's Cathedral |
We decided to get the hike out of the way and headed up the hill to several beautiful buildings that we spotted.
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| Otago Boys School |
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| Entrance |
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| Otago Boys School |
More stops along the way at St Joseph's Cathedral...
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| St Joseph's Cathedral |
We grabbed a geocache on the way down the hill and then we hit the mother load of wool shops! Kelly was dancing a jig!!
One of three walls of wool that Kelly could choose from. Huge inventory! Kelly decided that we would come back to this store and get “supplies” before returning to the ship. Oh oh Mayday x 3!
Wall art... hey it beats graffiti!
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| Wall Art |
We returned to the center of the Octogon and found our 2000th geocache. It was epic in that we had a statue of Robbie Burns right beside it. Very fitting actually as his story has played an important part of our lives over the years!
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| Our 2000th cache location. |
We continued our travels to several more shops as we headed towards the beautiful railway station. The Law Courts came first then the railway station. Truly a magnificent piece of history.
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| Law Court |
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| Railway Station |
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| Gardens |
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| Inlaid floor. |
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| Amazing architecture! |
Stunning workmanship on the inlaid stairs, floors, & walls. The architecture was fantastic. Lunch was at CBK and we had oysters, calamari & chicken bites 👍 and a nice IPA & Sauvignon Blanc.. all very good.
Next was a visit to the First Church of Otago and it was stunning as well. Info here
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| First Church of Otago |
I grabbed a geocache near the First Church as Kelly headed to the wool store. She was happy.
We grabbed yet another geocache and then headed to the shuttle bus. Away at 2:15 to the ship and we enjoyed the drive along the coastline. There was a walking/running/ bike path all the way into Port Chalmers that mostly followed the train tracks. At the ship port at 14:38. and on the ship 14:47.
Once back safely onboard, we changed into our swim gear and went up to the solarium for a hot tub. It felt great! A beverage followed as we watched the rain fall and the log folks work on unloading truckloads of Radiata Pine. Turns out it is sent to Korea where it is ground to a pulp and then re-manufactured into wood products, furniture, cardboard etc.
We watched as the ship left the port and we headed out of the bay past the shoreline and it's old war emplacements etc.
We watched as the ship left the port and we headed out of the bay past the shoreline and it's old war emplacements etc.
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| Harrington Point Gun Emplacements |
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| Taiaroa Lighthouse |
We met up with Avis & George in Eden and had another nice social and dinner in Normandie this evening. No dessert though!
We retired early and I blogged while Kelly went to sleep. This stop was probably our favorite city stops so far. It is largely due to it's similarity to Scotland I suspect :-)
Tomorrow we will be cruising the fjords of New Zealand so lets hope for nice weather!!
Steps 14,800
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