More South Island

Our next stop was in Akaroa, the current port for the city of Christchurch and the Canterbury Plain. The usual port for Christchurch is Lyttleton, which is much closer, but the port area is still under repair from the last earthquake that the area suffered in 2016. It is expected to reopen later this year.

As a result, the small town of Akaroa has had to take on more tourists and tour buses going through the area for the past few years. We wonder what will happen when they disappear again, as our fellow guests who were in town were impressed by the atmosphere – and for some, the crafts and knitting yarn!

The problem with touring from this point on the Banks Peninsula is that everything is a lot farther away from here. Our tour, the High Country Adventure, meant a bus ride of 2 ¼ hours in each direction…Larry took his e-reader and Monica took some knitting along. The scenery was lovely as we drove around a number of bays and lakes, so part of the ride was very picturesque.

The bay in the town of Akaroa

Overlook from one of the bays

The pastoral landscape of the peninsula

Once we arrived at our destination on the Waimakariri River, we got our lifejackets and headed down to the Jet Boats for the first part of the adventure. New Zealand is known for these jet boats that skim over the water at an amazing 40 knots, or 46 miles per hour. They were originally developed on this river, but as Queenstown is more of a tourist area, boating on the Shotover River near there is much more well-known. It certainly was a lot of fun, especially when our driver took the boat into 360 degree turns!

After our 45 minute ride, we left the boats, had a nice buffet lunch put on by the tour company, and then headed out in our 4x4 vehicle to check out the views from a couple of cattle stations in the area. Rather than being in small trucks, we were in a 4x4 ‘bus’ that held about 14 people, so it wasn’t quite the experience we had been expecting. But we did get nice overlooks on the river and in the whole area.

Overlooking the river. The water is this brilliant blue
due to the composition of the rock and sand
that the river carries from the Southern Alps

Another view of the river valley

These were working stations that we drove through, and
the dogs were being taken out to round up the cattle
and sheep for the night

Once we were done with the hour or so here, we headed back into our highway bus for the long ride back to Akaroa.

Overlook toward Akaroa. Notice how much cloudier
it was here than on the Canterbury Plain.

There was a Mardi Gras party in the Crystal Cove that evening, but as our tour was one of the last to arrive back, we had missed the pre-dinner festivities. They did however carry on with the music and dancing later in the evening as well.

And for our final port stop in New Zealand, the next day we arrived in Dunedin. We had been here a few times before, and had done all of the tours offered by Shore Excursions, so we decided to take the shuttle bus from the port area at Port Chalmers into town. There, we walked around a bit, visiting St. Paul’s Cathedral and the First Church as well as the Railway Station, before Monica checked out a local yarn shop that was just down the street from the shuttle bus stop…..and found our knitting instructor and a few other knitters from the ship there already!

The morning sail in to Port Chalmers was amazing. This low-lying
cloud eventually burned off, but it looked like a cotton
batten blanket on top of everything.

St. Paul's Cathedral. The first Anglican church in
Dunedin, although the building is only about 100 years old

Beautiful stained-glass windows

This modern part was added in 1971....note the
scaffolding!

The Cathedral and the statue of Robert Burns, famous
Scottish poet. The name 'Dunedin' is actually old
Gaelic for 'Edinburgh'.

The Dunedin Railway Station. There used to be regular
passenger service in New Zealand, but now the station
is only used for the Taeri Gorge Railway's
scenic tours.

The inside of the railway station.

The First Church of Dunedin, the first Presbyterian church.
The Reverend Thomas Burns, nephew of Robert,
came to Dunedin in 1843 and established the
congregation.

Inside the church. The woodwork is amazing.

This tapestry of the story of Thomas Burns coming to establish the First Church, in 3 panels
of needlepoint, made by 19 women from the church between 1983 and 1990.

Heading back to the ship in the early afternoon, we worked on catching up with a few things, like probably a blog post, before dinner. Before we left port, the captain warned us that it would be quite rough during the night. That meant two things: 1) we had to ‘sea-proof’ our cabins by putting away anything that might fall down, and 2) that we would not get in to Dusky or Doubtful Sounds the next day. He was hoping, however, that we would still get into Milford Sound, although a little later than expected. Stay tuned!

Sailing past the lighthouse while the weather was still nice.