Dunedin, New Zealand
Today is Wednesday, February 7th. This is our third, and final, day spent crossing the Tasman Sea on our way to Melbourne. The sea is much calmer today and the sun is shining. A nice change from the last couple of days.
I'll post more photos of the railroad station shortly, but let's get back to the beginning. Here are first light and arrival photos as we approached Port Chalmers which is where we docked and from where we were bussed into Dunedin. Port Chalmers lies on the 12 mile-long Otago Harbor.
Our next stop was the Dunedin Botanic Garden. What a beautiful and lively place, full of people, lots of children, an orchestra playing from an attractive shell for an audience spread out on a lawn and sitting behind on elevated benches, and a long line of people waiting to get in to a conservatory in order to view a plant that we were told flowers only once every ten years. We were so glad we got to see this resource.
Janis will next prepare a post describing a typical day on the ship while at sea.
As those of you who have been following the blog know, I like to begin a new posting with photos showing what we see when we first open the curtains in the morning and the approach as we enter our new port for the day. It finally dawned on me that this blog software I'm using publishes the first photo I upload as the lead photo for any given blog posting. As a consequence, there has been a succession of sunrise photos. So, I've decided that from now on the first photo I upload will be one that's representative of the place featured in a posting. Today's blog is about our visit to Dunedin, NZ last Sunday. Dunedin, located on the South Island, is a gem of a place and there are so many images that represent it well, but I've selected a photo of its train station to upload first because that building is particularly beautiful.
I'll post more photos of the railroad station shortly, but let's get back to the beginning. Here are first light and arrival photos as we approached Port Chalmers which is where we docked and from where we were bussed into Dunedin. Port Chalmers lies on the 12 mile-long Otago Harbor.
Dunedin, the Celtic name for Edinburgh, sits at the head of the harbor and is home to New Zealand's first university, the University of Otago. It is NZ's 6th largest city, with a population of 128,000. The university is the biggest player in Dunedin's economy and includes a number of schools, medical and dental schools among them. We took a shuttle bus into town from the port and were deposited in the center of town just opposite the library. We immediately set out to find the railroad station, about which we had heard so much. On our way we passed a pub, called The Ratbag, that displays a sense of humor (I think it's intended humor).
On our way to the station we passed a hotel named Law Courts Hotel as well as a beautiful courthouse, with a not-so-beautiful (and, fortunately, not-so-visible) annex at the back.
The railroad station itself is described as eclectic, revived Flemish renaissance style. It took over two years to construct, and opened in 1906. Total cost was $92.127M in 2013 U.S. dollars. Every detail of the building, inside and out, is eye catching. We certainly don't build public buildings of this quality today. Because railroad traffic has diminished over time, substantial parts of the building are now used for other purposes. Two worth mentioning in particular are an art gallery and a sports hall of fame, both on the second floor. We were so taken by this building, that I took lots of photos of it and can't resist posting some of them here, in addition to the one at the very top of the blog.
Once we left the building, Janis saw this sign which reminded us of that famous signpost in Maine.
We then headed to the Otago Museum which sits adjacent to the University of Otago. The museum dates back to 1868 and was moved to its present site in 1874. Several additions later, the museum is known for many things, but what appealed to us most was its humanities collection with artifacts from all over Micronesia, Melanesia, Polynesia and Australia, as well as an extensive collection of Maori treasures.
Our next stop was the Dunedin Botanic Garden. What a beautiful and lively place, full of people, lots of children, an orchestra playing from an attractive shell for an audience spread out on a lawn and sitting behind on elevated benches, and a long line of people waiting to get in to a conservatory in order to view a plant that we were told flowers only once every ten years. We were so glad we got to see this resource.
Finally, we walked back across town to the bus stop to pick up the shuttle to the ship. We did a lot of walking that day, which was a good thing since we had spent too much time riding buses the few days prior.
Janis will next prepare a post describing a typical day on the ship while at sea.
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