Dunedin

At 7 am we sailed into a corridor of breathtaking green mountains towering above us on both sides of the ship. Sprinkled upon them were a goodly share of New Zealand’s 30 million sheep, grazing peacefully. Unlike Christchurch and the rest of English New Zealand, Dunedin was settled by Scots. Our bus took us from Port Chalmers through Dunedin, all the way to Moeraki. We stopped for lunch at Fleur’s, a seafood restaurant in a corrugated tin shed that serves some of the best seafood in the world. Years ago the owner, whose name is actually Fleur (like Michaelangelo, she needs no last name), survived cancer, moved to New Zealand, and decided to start her life over again. There is much more to her story. We’ll tell it to you when we see you. Let’s just say that the meal was memorable. After lunch we went down to the beach that surrounds Fleur’s to see the Moeraki Boulders. Some are the size of an ottoman, some as big as a car. These mudstone nodules formed in this volcanic soil during prehistoric eruptions. When the level of the sea changed, some of these huge stone spheres rolled out onto the beach as the ground holding them was eroded by the sea. When we left the beach we had time for a quick drive through Dunedin (the original Gallic name of Edinburgh) and a stop at its lovely Victorian train station. Since the destruction of many of Christchurch’s Victorian buildings in the earthquake seven years ago, Dunedin boasts the highest concentration of Victorian buildings in the world. We returned to the ship, and as we prepared to sail away, a young girl, maybe thirteen years old, appeared on the dock in full Scottish regalia. She started playing the bagpipes as the dock workers slipped the hawsers from the cleats. As we sailed away she started playing Amazing Grace. We could barely hear her final notes, but as she finished, she saluted our ship, executed a right-face, and marched back to the gate of the port area and back into town. We have fallen in love with New Zealand. There is nowhere in the world where the terrain is more beautiful, nor the residents as welcoming or sensible. We will do our best to return to this wonderful place. Until we do, we will carry this amazing country and these delightful people in our hearts.Read more