Wanderung 26

Walkabout, Sailabout

March - May 2012


 

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Thursday, April 19th, 2012: Dunedin, New Zealand

Bob:

Dunedin lies at the end of a long inlet, but the water there is apparently rather shallow. Thus, the deep water port for commercial shipping in the area is Port Chalmers, a small town about half way down the inlet on the Otago Peninsula. The water there is deep enough for freighters and cruise ships, and the Sea Princess docked there early in the morning. Port Chalmers boasts a fairly large, commercial shipping dock. One side of the harbor concentrates on containerized cargo, while the other side is dedicated to bulk cargo such as tree trunks and wood chips, as far as we could see.

Our ship docked on the container side of the harbor at dawn. The security zone around the ship had already been constructed; it consisted of a set of large, heavy, steel shipping containers arranged in a kind of squared-off "D" shape around the wharf. It certainly formed a solid barrier!

Monika:

I went on deck when we entered the harbor to Port Chalmers. As I remembered, there was a lumber port on one side and a container port on the other side. Last time we were moored along the lumber port with the two steaming piles of wood chips. This time we docked next to the container port. The containers had been used to create a "secure area", so the ship was truly "boxed in".

Bob:

The port lecturer had told us the private shuttle bus service to Dunedin cost only $10 US, so we decided to take that into the center of Dunedin and then maybe take a walking tour. The service was efficient, but we were puzzled when the bus driver made an intervening stop at the Dunedin train station to let off four other passengers. It was only when we visited the train station later and found that there was a 9:30 AM departure for the Taieri Gorge excursion train, that we put two and two together and figured out that those other couples had been in a hurry to get to the train station in order to take that train.

Blissfully ignorant of missing that golden opportunity, we stayed on the shuttle bus until it dropped us off at the Octagon in the center of the city. We took a picture of the cathedral and a statue of the Scottish poet Bobbie Burns (a curious juxtaposition given his antagonistic relationship with the church), and wandered up and down the main street that cuts right through the central part of the Octagon.

Along the way we found an ATM for some NZ currency, the Dunedin city library that offered free Internet service, and an "i-Site" or information center that offered a self-guided walking map of the city for 50 cents. We purchased that and ended up following the lower loop around the oldest parts of the city, in part because the upper loop involved climbing a hill and I wasn't sure I was up for that!

The walking tour map was quite good at noting the most architecturally interesting and significant commercial buildings in the city center. Most of them were things like banks, businesses, and hotels from Dunedin's prosperous past. It still looked relatively prosperous compared to the moribund Port Chalmers and the earthquake-devastated Christchurch that we had heard so many stories about.

Monika:

We had decided to spend the day in Dunedin, the large city about 8 miles up the Otago Bay. A convenient shuttle bus would take us there and back for only $10.

The bus let us off at the Octagon, the middle of town, an area that really was shaped like an octagon. Our first stop was the visitor information center or I-site. There we picked up a good map of Dunedin and bought a smaller map of two walking tours, identifying all the historic houses.

After that we walked over to the library. On the plus side, they had free Internet, but on the minus side they did not open until 9:30 and it was only 9:10. Rather than wait 20 minutes, we decided to start walking and come back later.

The walking tour was really a lot of fun. It zig-zagged us through the city, pointing out old banks, old hotels, and finally the Presbyterian Church. That was situated near Victoria Park, and there, of course, was also a statue of "The Queen" (i.e., Victoria). From there, we walked past the Settlers Museum, which unfortunately was closed for renovations. But it looked like it will be really interesting once it re-opens.


 

Bob:

The architectural piece de resistance was the fanciful, almost gingerbread, stonework of the Dunedin Railway Station. It was truly beautiful and I was happy when the tour buses left the parking area in front for a while and I could take a clear, uncluttered picture of it. Inside we found some nice postcards, pretty stamps, and even a carved wood train-shaped bookmark!

Monika:

Both the old police station and the gaol (American: jail) were in the same gingerbread style as the rather famous railway station. The latter was truly beautiful, inside and out. We lingered for a while, and found out, that there also was a train to the Taieri Gorge. The shipboard excursion was rather dear (over $200), but here we would have only paid $85 NZ. But the train had left at 9:30 (by now it was 10:30). Now we knew, why two couples had asked the shuttle bus driver to let them off at the train station...ah, at least now we know for next time!


 

Bob:

From the train station we swung by the Cadbury chocolate factory, but finally decided not to take a tour as it was $30 NZD apiece, and you can purchase a lot of chocolate for $30 !! Instead, we worked our way back up to the Octagon, where we found that the open-air tent market was now in full swing. Much to my surprise, Monika found a pretty little flower-shaped necklace with pieces of Paua shell used for the leaves. It was quite pretty and I was happy to buy directly from the artisan who made it, a quirk of mine. For myself, I found a tea towel that featured steam engines from New Zealand’s past and that became my souvenir of the day.

Monika:

I was curious to see the Cadbury factory, hoping for a chocolate outlet store. I have still a soft spot for Cadbury Outlet stores after the one we had found in Plymouth, England, where I had bought a bag of chocolates that had been discarded as seconds, and they were delicious. This one was, however, a pure money making endeavor. The factory tour was $30, and to go into the store, you had to buy a tour ticket. Oh well, it really was time to get back to the library. We each signed up for a 30 minute time slot, but sequentially. By working together, this gave us an hour, and we used it to catch up on our email and let everyone know we were doing just grand.

During our perambulations, I had spied a grocery store. So we checked the wine prices, but they were rather high. However, the Coke drinks were on sale, so we picked up a bottle of Coke and one of Sprite. We were ready to head back to the ship, but first we stopped at the craft market that was situated in the Octagon. Bob bought a tea towel with locomotives on it and he bought me a very beautiful necklace made from Paulu shell with silver ornamentation.


 

Bob:

After picking some additional groceries at a nearby store, we boarded the shuttle bus for the return trip to the ship and unloaded in our cabin. I went back out to see the local Maritime Museum just at the head of the pier while Monika rested after all our walking. The museum turned out to be a typical "Grandma's Attic" type of local museum with a weird miscellany of old nautical stuff crammed in every available space in two rooms and a loft.

Monika:

The shuttle back to the ship let us off at the top of the main street in Port Chalmers, where the grocery store was. I picked up a bottle of sparkling ale and we walked back to the ship. It really was past time for lunch.

After lunch, Bob wanted to go back to town to see the small local maritime museum. I had had enough for today and just stayed on board and rested until Bob finally came back, and then we got ready for another enjoyable meal.

Bob:

I had a wonderful time reading all the descriptions, when they were available, and trying to figure out what something actually was, when they were not. I finally saw the wedge-shaped piece of wood that was used to "toss the log" on the sailing ships in order to count knots and find the ship's speed. That one I could figure out, but the binnacle compass that had a small platform and "gunsights" on top of it completely bamfoozled me, although in retrospect it might have been used to take bearing sightings.

There were, of course, the obligatory ship models, some encased in glass but some of the bigger ones just sitting out in the open, and pieces of old ships such as life preservers, bells, binnacles, and so forth. There was a particularly fine model of the USS Constitution which showed it with all sails set, and that brought home to me what a remarkable sight it must have been to see the old sailing ships with all plain sail set. I spent an hour or two wallowing around in all that information, and was as happy as a pig in clover.

Most of the artifacts where interesting in an emotionally positive way, but a few were interesting in an emotionally negative way. The most distressing thing I read was about "Blackbirding", the forced enslavement of Pacific Islanders to work in the mines and guano-processing industry in Peru in the 1860s, a truly horrific example of slavery. Most of the slaves died, but maybe 25% lived to be repatriated to their islands. Unfortunately, they brought back diseases like small pox that further decimated the fragile island populations. All in all, a tragic but true tale. I am adamantly and viscerally opposed to slavery in any form, any time, any where. Why the prohibition of slavery is not part of the Ten Commandments I cannot imagine, but it certainly shows the cultural limitations of the folks composing the Old Testament.

Although lost in thought I did manage to get back on the Sea Princess in time to put myself together for a nice evening meal with our tablemates, after which we turned in for the night.


 



Copyright 2012 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt


 

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