New Zealand - Mar 3 - Dunedin

POL:

Dunedin is a town on the eastern coast of the south island of New Zealand.  It was designed and settled using Enidburgh, Scotland as an example.  For once we did not have to look out over massive piles of pine logs in the port.  Instead, Dunedin is a container port.  So we got to see containers as well as piles of pine logs.

Our first stop in Dunedin was at Baldwin Street.  Baldwin Street had the honor of being the steepest street in the world.  At a mere elevation of 19 to 21 degrees this 350 meter long street has those that travel the length of the street rising one meter for every 2.86 meters traveled horizontally.  As we made our way up the street we were hoping there would be oxygen tanks at the top.  There weren't.

view from the bottom

view from the top

Once the victim has made their way to the top there is a bench upon which to rest and catch your breath before you make you way back down to the bottom.  The entire ordeal didn't take very long, but it was a workout.  It reminded me of doing the 'Rocky' run at the museum of art in Philidelphia.

We left Baldwin street and headed more into town.  They had a very nice Anglican church (that wasn't open yet) and the First Church of Otago (which also wasn't open).  Both were nice looking churches.

After not seeing inside the churches we went to the train station, which was under heavy renovations.  We did, however, get to go inside.  There were some very interesting mosaic floors as well as some stained glass windows in a sort of railway motif.

After our fun in town we traveled to the only castle in New Zealand.  Although I would not really classify it as a castle but more of a house built in a castle style.  The castle was built in the late 1800's.  The most outstanding feature was the ornamental iron works that surrounded the building on the ground and first floors.  Kind of like an iron gingerbread.  There was also a garden that surrounded the castle.  There were still some flowers in bloom.  A few of the succulents they had were the size of volleyballs.

Following the castle we took a scenic drive toward the Albatross sactuary.  On the way we stopped at a couple of beaches.  One was very pretty.  However, since the trail down to the beach was VERY lenghty we stopped to gaze about one fourth of the way down and just watched from there.

The next beach had a shorter hike to get to the beach.  So we hiked through the very fine sand to make our way to the beach.  We were not alone!  There were five rather large seals at the beach.  After we got there the seals appeared to awaken.  They stood up and stretched for a moment, rolled over, and continued their naps.  We felt bad for disturbing them, but I'm sure they really paid us no mind.

Our last stop was the Albatross sanctuary.  We hiked down the trail and searched the side of the cliff for the Albratross nests.  There weren't any.  We found out that all the nests were on the OTHER side of the cliff, on the ocean side where there was more of a breeze to help them become airborn when flying.  As luck would have it we were not able to hike to the windward side of the cliff.  We did, however get to see the nests from a distance when the ship was leaving the harbor.

In this photo all the small black patches on the light brown part of the cliff are nesting Albatross.  The remaining white patches are empty nests that are waiting for the Albatross to return.

Then it was back to the ship.  The trip back took about 45 minutes.  By the time we got back we were all ready to get out of the small mini van that took us there.  We were tired of being squished into the vehicle.  Except me, of course.  I had called 'SHOTGUN' early in the morning so I got to ride in the front, albeit somewhat cramped, front passenger seat.

Dinner was at the Canneloni restaurant.  This was supposed to be one of their premier restaurants.  Let's just say that none of us were overly impressed.  The menu was lacking, the food was unimpressive, and the steaks that Leonard and I ordered were well over cooked.  Desert was good though.  Three small containers of gelato.  The flavors were sweet wine with raisins, pistacio, and chocolate.

After dinner we played some trivia, of which none of us were experts, and called it a day.  Tomorow we hit the sounds of New Zealand.