Dunedin NZ

Oceans and Seas » Pacific
February 23rd 2012

Published: February 23rd 2012

Thursday, 23rd February 2012:

We had never heard of Dunedin until Cunard decided to take us there but it proved to be

the gateway to an amazing journey along the (famous!!) Taieri Gorge. And what made the

journey great was the fact it was done on a wonderful old railway. 14 carriages were

hauled by 3 old diesel engines and the return journey took us nearly 6 hours. Talk

about rugged! There is almost no wildlife here: a few birds, some wild deer and goats

and that's about your lot. We only saw 7 houses in all those hours and it's hardly

surprising. The gorge makes Cheddar look like toy town. Its steep sides are covered in

trees at the bottom of the gorge but it turns to large rocks and then just scree. You

travel across some seriously hairy bridges and viaducts too and although they make a

photo look good, they make your bum twitch as you cross and can't see anything holding

you up when you look out the window!

It was terribly civilized on board the train. We had one seat each facing each other

and a shared table but only ourselves to share it; no-one else. They served tea and

beer and soda and wine all day long as well as a really lovely lunch on board. The rain

chucked itself down all day long but heck, we're British, so that was never going to get

in the way of our fun. There was a sniffy pair of Germans opposite us who wanted

everyone in the carriage to keep their windows shut so they didn't get cold. In the

end, they shut their own windows, everyone else opened theirs so they could enjoy the

view and take hundreds of photos and the Germans put their coats on.

The ship was late arriving at Dunedin this morning so the train was late leaving which

meant the train was late arriving back at the ship. Very late. Thank goodness we were

on a Cunard trip - along with 383 other guests from the ship. If we'd booked our own

trip the ship would not have waited. It's one major plus point for going on the pre-

arranged tours with Cunard. They guarantee to wait for you if your tour runs late.

Mind you I reckon they shut the doors straight away behind the last passenger and

immediately pulled away from the dock.

Dunedin's harbour is much like a Norwegian fjord with seriously steep sides, especially

at the very narrow entrance. The rocks here are home to a very rare land-based colony

of albatrosses. They were all sitting firmly on the ground when we went passed and I

can't blame them, 'cos it's still chucking it down out there.

We head out tonight across the Tasman sea as we make our way towards Australia next. We

have 2 full days at sea now and then go first to Melbourne. We're very excited about

this port of call because we're meeting up with Kathleen, my ex boss from Reading. We

used to talk about the fact that one day Richard and I planned doing a world cruise and

would meet up but I don't think I really expected it to happen this quickly. Can't wait

for big hugs and major catching up on gossip!

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