Dunedin, New Zealand

Saturday, February 12, 2011    66 degrees                            8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

175 miles east of Queenstown and 226 miles south of Christchurch

Port Chalmers is 15 minute drive to Dunedin.  Port Chalmers lies in Otago Harbour which is a bay of approximately eleven miles long with Dunedin at the end.  The harbor is split into the lower and upper harbour, divided at Port Chalmers by the Halfway Islands.  Port Chalmers lies five miles into the harbour which is entered through a dredged channel just over 36 feet deep.  This was Otago’s first European settlement.  Its hilly promontory offers superb views and easy access to the sea.  The first settlers, searching for defensible ports in a potentially hostile land, welcomed the sight.

One way to get to know about the prolific wildlife of this area is to take a boat trip to Taiaroa Head with Monarch Wildlife Cruises.  The Royal Albatross Colony is unusually near human civilization.  Visitors can watch the graceful white birds with black wings that span more than 12 feet.  Their heavy bodies can’t leave the ground in less than 15-knot winds.  A pair mates for life and returns to the colony every second year to breed.  A single egg is laid twice the size of an orange and a chick is born four months later.  Chicks hatch in January and their parents shelter them for the first month.  Adults are known to circle the globe and have been documented to fly an average of 80,000 miles each year.  Their life span is 45 years. We did see the Royal Albatross circling overhead.  Next we saw the New Zealand Fur Seal.  They can move rapidly across the rocks on all four fins.  They can weigh up to 180 kilograms,  We left the Monarch and boarded a coach which took us to the New Zealand Marine Studies Center.  We were given information about the Southern Ocean and a chance to look inside a shark egg.  We reboarded the coach and proceeded to Nature’s Wonder where we had lunch.  We then boarded an 8 x 8 wheel Argo vehicle to view a fur seal colony, the yellow-eyed penguin and the little blue penguin.  We only saw 1 yellow-eyed penguin and 3 little blue penguin’s.  They were moulting and are not able to enter the water during this time.

Dunedin is arguably the culture capital of the South Island, thanks to the university, live music, and arts scene. If it’s too sunny to be indoors, there are the wildlife of Otago Peninsula and the surf at St. Claire Beach to enjoy. Could have blustery and wet periods. Dunedin is the Gaelic name for Edinburgh.  Dunedin, established at the site of the Maori village of Otakou, is the South Island’s second largest city.  The city’s Victorian homes are accented with great Gothic spires that reach heavenward throughout the city.  A town square that happens to have eight sides, the Octagon is the city’s hub. It’s lined with several imposing buildings, as well as a smattering of market stalls.  We had 45 minutes to walk around town.



Sunset on the ship as we were sailing away