We awoke from a very sound sleep (thanks to a really calm sea) to see land. We (or the Captain) appeared to navigate a narrow channel so we sailed very slowly into Port Chalmers, arriving around 9am. We had breakfast and took lots of photos from our balcony of the ship coming through the beautiful harbour. This is a busy port with lots of activity lapsing and unloading container ships. We are the only passenger vessel in port.
After waiting for the crowds to disperse we walked off the ship about 9.45am and headed to the shuttle bus to take us to Dunedin. Port Chalmers is very small ..... just a few little shops, a pub & a library. The trip to Dunedin (4th largest city in NZ) takes about 20 mins and follows a very scenic route around the harbour. Most of the city revolves around The Octagon or town square so it is easy to get around. We went straight to the 2 Degrees shop and I purchased a NZ SIM with combined Data/Call/SMS use. The guy who served me set it all up and inserted the card for me which saved a lot of time and brain drain. It works well so I just need to sort out how to check my balance etc. Maybe I should read the instructions!
We then had a coffee at Starbucks as they have free Internet so I uploaded the last 3 days of blog entries. Then we walked around for a while and came back to The Octagon and discovered all the cafes, pubs, park etc also have free Internet. So we had an excuse to sit outside in a nice bar and have a Cider. Very nice as we tried 2 different types, one was a Fejoa ? sp. It is a fruit that grows here as well as Au. Caught up on a few emails and watched the world go by.
After a beautiful sunny morning the sky began to darken so we decided to head back to the ship. Once again we didn't do any organised tours as we will be doing them later as part of our land tour.
Back on board around 2pm and off to the buffet for a cold drink and some salad. Then back to our stateroom for a little rest.
I will add some photos of our arrival in Dunedin and send this off before we sail this afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment