It’s a sunny but not too warm day here in Dunedin and we’re off exploring to Otago peninsular, so expect a few updates and pictures during the day – and (if we’re lucky) some penguin pictures…

Out first call was to Port Chalmers via the hills around Mt Cargill. The views across the bay were stunning and well worth the drive. The only thing you can’t tell from the pictures is just how windy it’s been today.

Port Chalmers is only a small place, but it’s a busy deepwater port that boasts a container terminal as well as a general port. When we visited the cruise ship ‘Viking Orion’ was present as well as the Hamburg Sud container ship ‘Rio De Janeiro’.

Port Chalmers has an older claim to fame. On November 19th 1910 it was from here that Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his ill-fated expedition sailed for the Antarctic, never to be seen alive again…

14:17.

After visiting Port Chalmers we’ve just walked up Baldwin St, which has the distinction of being the world’s steepest residential street. Over the 161.2 metre length of the top section it climbs a vertical height of 47.22 metres, and average gradient of 1 in 3.41 but at its steepest it’s 1 in 2.86!

Over the years it’s attracted tourists and those who want to rise to its challenges – hence these commemorative plaques at the top.

Dawn’s reaction on reaching the top said it all…

 

Now we’re having a quick drink at the railway station which really is a superb looking building and the most Southerly railway station on the planet since the service to Invercargill was withdrawn in 2002.

16:12.

The drive out along the Otago peninsula to the Waiwhakaheke Seabird Lookout was beautiful. For much of the way the winding road’s been built right on the edge of the sea, which makes for some interesting driving conditions when it’s as windy as today and the sea comes over onto the road! Sadly, we didn’t see any Albatrosses when we got there – or penguins, just lots of Gulls, Gannets and seals. However, on the way back we did see something just as rare and equally endangered. These old tram bodies…

I’ve a favour to ask…
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