Dunedin

Located in the southeast of the South Island on the Otago Peninsula, Dunedin has the distinction of being settled by Scottish pioneers. Originally a Maoris settlement, Dunedin was first discovered by European whalers in the early 1800s. Scottish emigrants, looking to escape religious persecution at home, settled in the region in the first half of the 19th century. And because they surveyed the land and planned the city carefully before starting to build, Dunedin is laid out wonderfully. It is known as the Edinburgh of the South.

View from ship as we entered harbor.  Notice the road at the water's edge.  Nice drive to work for those living around here.

Our excursion today was with Back to Nature Tours. We ended up having the tour driver and his intern all to ourselves for an all day tour. It was excellent! We started out with a city tour of Dunedin, stopping by all the key attractions and learning a bit about the history of the city. We saw Baldwin Street, billed as the steepest street in the world, Otago University, and the historic Railway Station. Tour buses filled with cruise passengers were at the Railway Station when we arrived. And there was a photo frenzy going on inside the main entrance. And people aren't afraid to speak their minds! When Japanese tourists take photos, they always have at least one member of their party posed in the photo. There was a beautiful stained glass window in the entryway that many wanted a photo of and did not like that the Japanese were always standing poised for their photo in front of it. I only wished that the tour buses hadn't park right in front of the building so I good get a nice photo of the exterior stonework, which was amazing.

The Railway building and those darn buses

Lanarch Castle

Next we headed up in the hills to Lanarch Castle, which is New Zealand's only castle. It was built by a banker between 1871 and 1885 for his wife, who died before it was completed. It is quite grand and the gardens and views of the coastline were amazing.

After lunch of fish and chips in a small pub by the shore, we went to Penquin Place. It is an award-winning venure to save the yellow-eyed penquins, the world's rarest species of penquin. A system of camouflaged trenches allows visitors to view nesting yellow-eyed penquins at close range without disturbing them. We hiked up the hillside for overviews and then down into the trenches to view the penquins. This was awesome!

Overview of penquin preserve

Beach here penquins emerge from the sea

Walking through the trenches to view the nesting penquins

Back in our van, we followed the road that runs along the coastline of the pennisula. It is just a few feet from the water and great for viewing a variety of wildlife. The hillsides are a bright green and spotted with sheep and a pesky little plant called gorse. From a distance the gorse is quite striking and looks beautiful on the hillsides right now as it is blooming bright yellow. But the locals don't like it and consider it a nuisance as it takes over indigenous foliage.

We stopped by the Royal Albatross Center at the mouth of the Otago Harbor. This is home to the world's only mainland royal albatross colony. We watched the birds glide above us (their wingspan is about 3 meters, which I think is about 9 feet) and saw a nesting albatross on the center's webcam.

This was a most wonderful day. The Dunedin area is absolutely beautiful, the people friendly, and a place where we would love to spend more time. But, it's back on board and we set sail for the fjords on the west coast of the South Island.