Dunedin New Zealand

Hi Guys,

Dunedin – New Zealand 5 March 2011

(Longitude: 45 50’South   Longitude: 170 26’ East)

(Time +13 GMT)

Dunedin is the first port of call on New Zealand’s south east shore. We cruised across the Tasman Sea from Sydney to Milford Sound, then onto Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound and then around the south end of New Zealand between Stewart Island to Dunedin. We tie up to a dock next door to which is a huge collection of logs and the biggest mountain of wood chips. All destined for foreign shores for timber production and pressed particle board.

We go on an excursion today on a boat out of Port Chalmers to Taiaroa Head to see a variety of birds and animals but mainly breeding albatross, apparently, there are several species (Southern Royal Albatross, Royal Albatross, White capped Albatross and Bullers Albatross). The harbor is about 22 kms long and about 2 meters deep outside of the shipping lanes and at low tide a variety of wading birds can be observed. I am no expert bird watcher but the leaflet that we are given lists 22 species of birds including 3 penguins,4 seals, sea lions and 3 dolphins

We are each provided with a pair of binoculars to watch the antics of the many birds diving into the water from flight, swimming on the surface and diving under, birds wading,. We spot a pair of black swans and someone matches shag and cormorant, quite delightful.

We come to a very steep cliff covered with grass and there to our delight are the heads of young albatross waiting for their dinner. Wheeling in the sky over head are juvenile albatross showing off their wings but they are too fast for me to get any pictures. We round the point and find fur seals perched up on the rocks.

We return to Port Chalmers after coffee on the boat and into Dunedin on the shuttle. I went to the Art Museum and found a wealth of European artwork, Constable, Reynolds, Monet and a Tissot. The Tissot on display depicted a girl at a railway station on her way to Carlisle with a tartan red blanket and several travelling bags. The custodian relates the story of this girl who was a mistress to Tissot, before she died of TB at 26. A few years earlier, in 1850 she went to India to marry an army officer, but was returned as “damaged goods” because of her friendship with the ship’s captain. She returned home and had two children; one by the sea captain, the other by Tissot. There is more but what a story.

We do not have much time in Dunedin (1 hour) because of our excursion but we find it a delightful place. We are back on board for a 5:30 departure.

Otago for the Albatross

Dunedin Point

Dunedin

Fur Seal

Dunedin, the old Gaelic name for Edinburgh is home to 122,000 people is the second largest city in the South Island and is situated on the southeast coast of South Island NZ.

The Maori probably arrived in the Dunedin area from about AD1100 and settled around the large natural harbor. The Dutchman Abel Tasman in 1642 was the first European to sight New Zealand and charted part of the west coast. Later a Dutch mapmaker (Mercator?), gave the name Nieuw Zeeland to the land Tasman had seen. When Captain Cook arrived in 1776 only a few hundred Maori remained. Visiting whalers brought influenza and measles that decimated the local population.

In March 1848 the first Scottish settlers set foot on New Zealand soil when John Wycliffe arrived at Port Chalmers about 8 miles away from Dunedin with 97 passengers  A month later Philip Laing reached the port with a further 247 settlers ready to start a new life.

Gold was found in 1881 but the gold rush was virtually over by 1890 but not before prospectors had flocked to the Otago and Dunedin areas and established large buildings and the University of Otago.

New Zealand is 1,200 miles from Australia, its nearest large neighbor.

Dunedin is on the same latitude south as Portland Or, Montreal, Venice, Milan or Bordeaux is north.

Three quarters of South Island, the larger of the country’s two main islands, is mountainous and reaches a maximum height of 12,316 ft at Mount Cook. Captain Robert Scott set out from Port Chalmers in the Terra Nova on his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole on 28 November 1910.

We are told we will not visit Christchurch the next stop for reasons we all know, so on to Wellington the Capital of NZealand.