I'll do a write upon the ship, but will post some photos courtesy of the Emerson's Brewery free WiFi.
Herewith, some photos. Tom Scribner, do you still hate me?
As noted, Tuesday morning found us docking in Dunedin, on the SE coast of New Zealand. The weather was a change from the sunny warmth we'd experienced up to this point, with overcast and highs predicted in the low 60s. No matter.
We were actually docked in Port Chalmers, a town about 10km from Dunedin. disembarked the ship and took a bus into the City at the cost of Nz$ 15. About USD $11.50 (love that exchange rate!). The bus dropped us in the center of Dunedin (pronounced "Done Eden") and we set off to explore. Where we were dropped off was the center of a spoked wheel layout with streets fanning out in various directions.
The town was settled by Scotts and has a very European feel to it.
We headed down Stuart Street in the direction of the train station. The courthouse must've been close by, because there were storefront legal office all around and a bar called the Jury Room Bar.
The train station is one of the most I,pressive buildings I've seen. It was constructed in 1906 and is massive. Once at the train station, we learned there was a 90 minute excursion leaving in 20 minutes. The trip would take us out past the bay, through Port Chalmers, our Cruise ship, and on to a small settlement, where it would reverse direction and take us back into Dunedin. All at a surprisingly reasonable cost of NZ$50.
The train trip didn't disappoint, and we had lots of opportunities to use up lots of pixels on the digital cameras.
Back in town, and at the recommendation of one of the train crew, we walked about a kilometer to the Emerson's Brewery for beer sampling and a lunch of a Cajun fried chicken sandwich (which, by the way, was excellent). I'd asked the train guy which brewery he'd recommend, Emerson's or Speight's. Turns out, Speight's is the largest brewery in NZ and train guy likened it to Budweiser. Emerson's won, and a good choice it was. Barbara learned that she actually liked the Porter Nitro, which had a coffee/chocolate flavor.
After Emerson's we strolled back into town and I stopped at a grocery to pick up a bottle of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc. Now, here is something interesting. The cruise ship wants you to buy all alcohol on board. They allow each passenger to Brewing one 750 ml. Bottle of wine (no beer, no hard liquor) aboard at the beginning of the cruise. After that, if you buy wine or other alcohol ashore, they take it and give it back to you at the end of the cruise. Sneaky, eh?
Well, here's the workaround. I have with me a 1 liter hot/cold hydroflask that I fill with coffee in the morning and water for off ship excursions. Even though the hydroflask is in my Jan sport backpack that I take ashore, which backpack is x-rayed upon returning to the ship, not once has anyone asked me to take it out and open it up. They must be looking for martial arts weapons like nunchucks or throwing stars, or maybe wine bottle shapes with they x-ray machine. So at any rate, the aforesaid bottle of Oyster Bay wine was decanted off into the hydroflask. I guess I'm just a scofflaw at heart.
After the grocery, it was on to the Cadbury chocolate factory, where Barbara was dismayed to find that the last tour had been at 2:00 pm. We consoled ourselves by purchasing large bars of Cadbury chocolate. For gifts of course, for gifts.
Then it was back into the town center, where a bit more shopping took place and we took the bus back to the cruise ship.
All in all a very satisfying day.
Next up, cruising Fijordland.l
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