Day 44  Port Chalmers, Dunedin, Penquin Place

Today we were docked in Port Chalmers which is 15 minutes by shuttle bus to Dunedin.  I took a few pictures from the deck of the ship.  On the side of the port there were like all the other ports in NZ log upon log, waiting to be shipped out.  I only hope that they don’t use all their forest.

We signed up for a volunteer program that Crystal offers now and then. They took us for a bus tour of Dunedin.  There were so many universities here.  Neat town,and then we went on to visit  the Penquin Place reserve where we planted trees.  It is home to the world’s only yellow eye penquins and they are endangered with only 3000 left in the world.  The problem is that the farmers before us cleared all the land for their farms and did away with the yellow eye penquins trees.  they are a shy penquin and require trees for shade and privacy.  The ones that are still here are being taken care of in the wild.  they even have a hospital to take care of injured ones.    We walked all over the preserve and stopped and planted a tree each.  My tree loves the wind so it went in front of the others.  Hopefully they will grow after we were all finished the head tree keeper put tires around each one we planted.  it works as a green house effect keeping them warm and straight.

We walked some more and saw seals sunny themselves on the beach and then got to see some of the yellow eye penquins in the wild.  We even saw one who is moulten.  It was a great tour and a great day.  Tomorrow we will be in Dusky, Doubtful sound and Milford sound which are both spectacular scenery.  Tomorrow is our last day in New Zealand and we have loved every minute of our time here.  The people are so friendly and the country is one of the prettiest countries I have ever seen.  Truly enjoy it here.  As I said tomorrow is dusky, doubtful sound and milford sound and then 2 sea days after before we get to Sydney.  I am going to be in Hubert’s jewelry fashion show on March 1 and yesterday Adam and Grace from the shop asked me to be in a Joseph Rippnicoff fashion show they are holding on March 2nd.  I bought 2 of his dresses and a jacket since I got on board.  Anyway wow I was never asked to be in a fashion show before and I will have been in 3 so far!  We are having a wonderful time and looking forward to tomorrow and then 2 sea days to relax oh no I can’t relax we have computer class and I have 2 fashion shows!   I am going to need a vacation from my vacation!

Dunedin Train Station

Church in Port Chalmer taken from deck of ship

Port Chalmer taken from ship

Also Port Chalmer taken from ship

Tile in the train station

Train Station other side

Court house

Brass Band getting ready to play in Dunedin

Chinese Garden

Yellow Eye Penguin

Tree that Bill planted

My tree