Dunedin, on the southeast coast, is the South Island’s second-largest city behind Christchurch. It was also our last port in New Zealand and I was sorry to see this portion of the trip come to an end. As I think I’ve said (or you’ve certainly surmised), I have fallen in love with New Zealand. It’s the most spectacular country I’ve ever seen and I really want to come back someday. After today, we spend a day scenic cruising Fjordland National Park, weather permitting, then cross the Tasman Sea to Australia. But today Greg and I have another full-day excursion along the Otago Peninsula for some more wildlife viewing. Or at least that’s the plan. You can never be totally certain when wildlife is involved.
We docked at Port Chalmers, a few miles from Dunedin proper. Seems as though we never dock in town, doesn’t it? Dunedin has a very strong Scottish background and, in fact, was originally called New Edinburgh. The name was changed to the Celtic “Dun Edin”, meaning “Edin on the Hill”. After a visit to Dunedin in the mid-1890s, Mark Twain said: “The people here are Scots. They stopped here on their way to heaven, thinking they had arrived”. Okay, I admit it. I didn’t actually remember all of that. I had to Google “Dunedin” to find what I was looking for! But I did remember enough to know what I needed, so I get partial credit. Anyway, our excursion today was by bus, boat and Argo (sort of like an all-terrain vehicle). Hopefully, we would see dolphins, seals, penguins and various kinds of birds. The big attraction was the chance to see a royal albatross, one of the world’s rarest birds. Keep your fingers crossed….
We sailed into the area very early, just about sunrise, and were actually docked by 7:30 am. The sail-in was very picturesque, once again with rolling hills and flowering shrubs on both sides of the inlet. It seems like all sail-ins have been that way. I can’t remember a boring one! We were on our way shortly after being cleared and headed for our first stop, the Marine Research Station. Interesting thing here is that we could see where we were going just across the water from the dock but there was no way to get there except to
drive about fifteen or twenty miles around the inlet. This turned out to be the least interesting part of the excursion, at least for me. It’s a working research facility and, although they do tours, it’s not really a tourist attraction. The best exhibit, in my opinion, was an octopus! I spent most of my time hanging around outside. Fortunately, it wasn’t a long visit and we were soon on the way to meet the tour boat which would take us on a visit to Taiaroa Head, site of the albatross colony.
It was cold and wet when we boarded the boat. Fortunately, they provided jackets for everyone, which were bulky but effective. We didn’t get more than a mile away from the dock when we stopped to view several fur seals just lying on the beach of a small island. Actually, they may have been sea lions. I’m not really certain. But they were our first wildlife of the day. As we continued out toward Taiaroa Head, we saw large colonies of seabirds and a
few dolphins. Then there were quite a few fur seals lying around on the rocks at the Head itself, as well as a few in the water. We cruised along the edge of the rocks for a while, taking pictures and enjoying the animals and the views. Then 
we spotted some more dolphins farther out from shore so we took off in that direction. These were the very rare Hector’s dolphins, only found in this part of New Zealand. They’re the smallest of the dolphins and man, they’re fast! While we were watching the dolphins,
someone spotted a royal albatross far off in the distance. They fly very close to the surface most of the time and are exceptionally hard to see, plus this one was a long way off. Fortunately, Greg had a good zoom lens and got a couple of pretty decent pictures (which I appropriated). That was a great ending to the tour and we cruised back to the dock to meet the bus.
Our next stop was Nature’s Wonders, a tour along the coast of the Otago Peninsula in Argos, an ATV or dune buggy kind of thing. But first we had lunch at the lodge and gift shop. Lunch wasn’t great so I went outside to look around while we waited for the previous tour to return. The lodge sits high up on a mountain overlooking the ocean and the views were terrific. As always, there were sheep grazing just across the road but my favorite thing was a little lamb in a pen right next to the lodge. He was just about the cutest thing I’ve
ever seen! After maybe thirty minutes, the other tour came back and it was our turn. Each Argo held six people plus the driver, two up front and four in the back. We were given rubber coats with hoods which I didn’t understand at first. Then we took off down a dirt path and I understood perfectly. I have never seen so much dust flying around in my entire life. And the rear of the vehicle was the absolute worst place to be. For whatever reason, the dust was thrown up into the passenger area and just swirled around in there, making it hard to even breathe. By the time the tour was over, everyone was filthy.
But the scenery almost made up for the dust. Maybe not completely, but close. The coastal views were once again spectacular. I realize that I’ve used words like spectacular, magnificent, outstanding, etc. to describe almost everything I’ve seen but I don’t know another way to express it. You’ll just have to visit New Zealand and see for yourself. Maybe then you’ll understand why my vocabulary seems to be so limited. We went up and down the mountains on dirt roads, stopping several times at scenic overlooks to view
the coastline. Then we stopped at one spot where quite a few seals were either swimming or just lazing on the rocks. Our last stop was going to be where we hoped to see the yellow-eyed penguins. But as soon as we arrived, the guides 
said that we wouldn’t be seeing any penguins. Lying in the surf was a leopard seal, which is a very rare sight and I suppose that I should have been happy to have the chance to see it. However, leopard seals are very ferocious predators and penguins are a favorite prey. Unfortunately, the penguins know this and were staying away in droves. Like I said, it’s rare to see the leopard seal so I guess it was a trade-off. Personally, I would rather have seen the penguins.
That was the last stop and we made our way back over the dusty trails back to the bus. When we got there, I
slapped my pants legs (not covered by the coat) and dust flew up in a cloud. I felt like Pig Pen in the Peanuts comic strip! All in all, it had been a great excursion but I was ready for a shower. Unfortunately, that would have to wait just a little while longer. On the way back to the ship, we did a little tour around town and made a stop at the train station. It’s a very ornate structure and, even though I was ready to go home, I enjoyed seeing it. We didn’t stay very long, just enough to get a few pictures. Then we went back to the ship and I was more than happy to be back!
We docked at Port Chalmers, a few miles from Dunedin proper. Seems as though we never dock in town, doesn’t it? Dunedin has a very strong Scottish background and, in fact, was originally called New Edinburgh. The name was changed to the Celtic “Dun Edin”, meaning “Edin on the Hill”. After a visit to Dunedin in the mid-1890s, Mark Twain said: “The people here are Scots. They stopped here on their way to heaven, thinking they had arrived”. Okay, I admit it. I didn’t actually remember all of that. I had to Google “Dunedin” to find what I was looking for! But I did remember enough to know what I needed, so I get partial credit. Anyway, our excursion today was by bus, boat and Argo (sort of like an all-terrain vehicle). Hopefully, we would see dolphins, seals, penguins and various kinds of birds. The big attraction was the chance to see a royal albatross, one of the world’s rarest birds. Keep your fingers crossed….
We sailed into the area very early, just about sunrise, and were actually docked by 7:30 am. The sail-in was very picturesque, once again with rolling hills and flowering shrubs on both sides of the inlet. It seems like all sail-ins have been that way. I can’t remember a boring one! We were on our way shortly after being cleared and headed for our first stop, the Marine Research Station. Interesting thing here is that we could see where we were going just across the water from the dock but there was no way to get there except to
drive about fifteen or twenty miles around the inlet. This turned out to be the least interesting part of the excursion, at least for me. It’s a working research facility and, although they do tours, it’s not really a tourist attraction. The best exhibit, in my opinion, was an octopus! I spent most of my time hanging around outside. Fortunately, it wasn’t a long visit and we were soon on the way to meet the tour boat which would take us on a visit to Taiaroa Head, site of the albatross colony.
It was cold and wet when we boarded the boat. Fortunately, they provided jackets for everyone, which were bulky but effective. We didn’t get more than a mile away from the dock when we stopped to view several fur seals just lying on the beach of a small island. Actually, they may have been sea lions. I’m not really certain. But they were our first wildlife of the day. As we continued out toward Taiaroa Head, we saw large colonies of seabirds and a
few dolphins. Then there were quite a few fur seals lying around on the rocks at the Head itself, as well as a few in the water. We cruised along the edge of the rocks for a while, taking pictures and enjoying the animals and the views. Then 
we spotted some more dolphins farther out from shore so we took off in that direction. These were the very rare Hector’s dolphins, only found in this part of New Zealand. They’re the smallest of the dolphins and man, they’re fast! While we were watching the dolphins,
someone spotted a royal albatross far off in the distance. They fly very close to the surface most of the time and are exceptionally hard to see, plus this one was a long way off. Fortunately, Greg had a good zoom lens and got a couple of pretty decent pictures (which I appropriated). That was a great ending to the tour and we cruised back to the dock to meet the bus.
Our next stop was Nature’s Wonders, a tour along the coast of the Otago Peninsula in Argos, an ATV or dune buggy kind of thing. But first we had lunch at the lodge and gift shop. Lunch wasn’t great so I went outside to look around while we waited for the previous tour to return. The lodge sits high up on a mountain overlooking the ocean and the views were terrific. As always, there were sheep grazing just across the road but my favorite thing was a little lamb in a pen right next to the lodge. He was just about the cutest thing I’ve
ever seen! After maybe thirty minutes, the other tour came back and it was our turn. Each Argo held six people plus the driver, two up front and four in the back. We were given rubber coats with hoods which I didn’t understand at first. Then we took off down a dirt path and I understood perfectly. I have never seen so much dust flying around in my entire life. And the rear of the vehicle was the absolute worst place to be. For whatever reason, the dust was thrown up into the passenger area and just swirled around in there, making it hard to even breathe. By the time the tour was over, everyone was filthy.
But the scenery almost made up for the dust. Maybe not completely, but close. The coastal views were once again spectacular. I realize that I’ve used words like spectacular, magnificent, outstanding, etc. to describe almost everything I’ve seen but I don’t know another way to express it. You’ll just have to visit New Zealand and see for yourself. Maybe then you’ll understand why my vocabulary seems to be so limited. We went up and down the mountains on dirt roads, stopping several times at scenic overlooks to view
the coastline. Then we stopped at one spot where quite a few seals were either swimming or just lazing on the rocks. Our last stop was going to be where we hoped to see the yellow-eyed penguins. But as soon as we arrived, the guides 
said that we wouldn’t be seeing any penguins. Lying in the surf was a leopard seal, which is a very rare sight and I suppose that I should have been happy to have the chance to see it. However, leopard seals are very ferocious predators and penguins are a favorite prey. Unfortunately, the penguins know this and were staying away in droves. Like I said, it’s rare to see the leopard seal so I guess it was a trade-off. Personally, I would rather have seen the penguins.That was the last stop and we made our way back over the dusty trails back to the bus. When we got there, I
slapped my pants legs (not covered by the coat) and dust flew up in a cloud. I felt like Pig Pen in the Peanuts comic strip! All in all, it had been a great excursion but I was ready for a shower. Unfortunately, that would have to wait just a little while longer. On the way back to the ship, we did a little tour around town and made a stop at the train station. It’s a very ornate structure and, even though I was ready to go home, I enjoyed seeing it. We didn’t stay very long, just enough to get a few pictures. Then we went back to the ship and I was more than happy to be back!
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