Shall I start by saying it was really really windy and cold on our excursion today? We started off with 16 other fellow passengers in a nice mini-bus with Trent, our driver guide. Yesterday in Christchurch everything was very English, Dunedin is very Scottish. A quick drive to the world's steepest residential street, the University area, and then to the train station that still has some trains but is mainly a rail museum and art gallery.
Across the street is the Lawyers Building with a lot of law offices and court rooms. There are a lot of Edwardian and Victorian buildings in Dunedin, all meticulously maintained.
After our short tour around in the town we headed out to the Otago peninsula where we were promised the best views of the bays and hills that comprise Dunedin. (My pictures do not do it justice but...there is a gentleman on board who is an avid photographer and I am just going to"share" his photos). I asked him today at bridge if it was ok and he said yes so be prepared for photos from Ted Brolin.
This is one of mine from our ride around the peninsula.
A Highlight was going to a beach where the sea lions come in to sleep. They swim from Anartica to the small islands surrounding this area, find the females, fight off the competition, mate then come sleep until time to repeat the process.
The picture of Dalna and me was taken during this portion of the tour. We are as close to Anartica as l'll probably ever get.
Trent dropped us off in town so we could catch the ship's shuttle bus after we had a bite to eat and looked in our last New Zealand gift shop! I love New Zealand. I could spend a lot more time exploring this country! Look for Ted's pictures that I'll share on FB.
It's off to Milford Sound and the fiords.
This took about 24 hours and I'm going to talk about it here because...the captain announced that there is another tropical depression coming and we could have really rough seas on our two day journey. That could mean no internet so I want to get this out.
The day was typical, we took a bite from our little coffee shop, played trivia, then I went to play bridge and Dalna went to the lecture. As we were finishing up our bridge game the captain announced that we were turning into Milford Sound, the New Zealand fiords. There was a party on the top deck for the world cruisers with kiwi drinks, spiced wine, and hot chocolate with or without a rum Cream. The scenery was spectacular, the drinks delicious and the wind ferocious!
The captain very slowly turned the boat around twice in a tight circle so everyone could see the waterfalls and capture the awesomeness of where we are.
Such incredible beauty. I pinch myself that I am actually here experiencing these parts of the world. These are comparable to the ones we saw in Norway in June.
Starting to feel the rocknroll of the waves. The prediction is for really rough on Saturday with waves reaching up to 6 meters. That's 20 feet!!!
Keep your fingers crossed that we dodge that bullet!
Stay tuned.
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