Monday, January 12 Dunedin

Deb here again. Every night we both sleep amazingly well on this ship. Don’t know if it’s the white noise, being on the water, putting in full days, or a combo of all of this but it’s wonderful. I was the taskmaster this morning, knowing we had a tour planned and needed to get moving, so we were up by 7 for a change.

After breakfast at Windows Cafe we packed up our backpack and climbed on a shuttle back into Dunedin. We arrived in Dunedin by 9 and had some time before our tour left at 10, so we found Perk, a good coffee shop, for a flat white and chai latter.

At 10 we met our grroup near the Octagon for our Otago peninsula wildlife Tour. I’d booked this experience through Trip Advisor, but it was part of Clearwater Wildlife Tours. The 4-hour tour ended up being fantastic. 10 of us (6 from Azamara) in a van with a local guide and the trip really got us out into the beauty of the surrounding area. When we were here in 2023 we hadn’t driven out on the peninsula and it was absolutely stunning. Cool today, but sun, clouds, blue sky, grey sky and oh, those greens. Paula (our guide) drove for about an hour, stopping at a couple of overlooks for photos, and then we entered the Clearwater land. The land owner has 1,000 head of sheep, so they were everywhere. We traveled on some narrow gravel roads in this private reserve, stopping to look for wildlife along the way. She pointed out all kinds of birds first, then we watched fur seals and their pups, with albatross flying above. We were each given our own pair of binoculars, so we could see everything up close. We walked on a beach and saw really lazy sea lions lounging around (not nearly as entertaining as the fur seals clambering on the rocks) and more birds. My favorite birds were the Pied Stilts, small black and white birds with really long skinny red legs. There was a group of them on the beach who were all huddled together resting, each on one leg.

We then went to the area where the Yellow-Eyed Penguins are nesting, and she managed to spot one at a distance. These penguins are very endangered, so to even see one at a distance was exciting.

Back in the van for another spectacular drive back to Dunedin, arriving back at 2:30. We decided to take the shuttle back to the ship then walk into nearby Port Chalmers for a drink. We walked into town and went to The Portsider for a cider, beer and snacks. Our new friends from Idaho, Kim and Terry, came in and we all enjoyed some good conversation. Back to the ship by 4:30 for tea, coffee, blog writing and a bit of downtime.

Dinner tonight with 6 other people. A Nebraska couple, two Aussie couples and us. We covered a lot of topics like crisps vs chips, french fries vs chips, mandatory voting in Australia (they get fined!!) and how to tell and Aussie from a Kiwi (have them saw “six”.

Then to the Cabaret for the last performance of the mentalist.

Then bed…