Cruisin' into Dunedin

Interested in a taking a cruise to exotic locations?  Come to Dunedin!

Hilarious but true.  In our time here, we've discovered that Dunedin one stop in many that cruise ships make in the southern hemisphere's summer months.  Princess Cruise Lines and P&O Cruises offer cruise itineraries that stop in New Zealand, usually between stops in the South Pacific and Australia.  When we were in Sydney, a HUGE Princess ship has just arrived after sailing for 34 days!!  It started in Vancouver and must have stopped at every Pacific island, because they were never at sea for more than four days.

While you can't see the cruise ships from the city, Dunedinites can tell its a cruise ship day when a) there are a lot of people walking around with lanyards on that say Princess or P&O, b) there are craft stalls set up in The Octagon (city center) ready to sell odd crafty crap to tourists, c) the Champions store on George Street has a HUGE sign in the window that says 'Cruise Ship 10% Discounts' and d) there are 9 billion extra charter buses on the roads.  Regardless of all of this, it's a boon to the city's economy, so I digress.

Todd and I have been wanted to get down to Port Chalmers to see a cruise ship in the dock, and we finally made it there this weekend. 

Here's a little video Todd made of the boat backing up and turning away (the thing can turn on a dime!), but the camera died before it.  We've put a picture of it sailing away down the harbor at the end. 

 

 

Cruise on over to Dunedin - we'll see you here!