Monday, 27 February 2017
At Sea — Pacific Ocean … En Route to Milford Sound
Not Collected on 27 February … These Are From 28 February
Stats @ Ship’s Time 6:30a (NZDT) … UTC 5:30p (27 February)
Temp: 55.2F (12.9C)
Position: 45.54.64S / 166.18.33E
Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.
~ Paul Theroux ~
Dunedin — where we spent three nights in 2015 at the most charming Blackhead Cottage — was today’s port of call. We’d already done the penguin and albatross centers, and visited the interesting sights in the city. So today we went to a couple of beaches — not to swim, but to enjoy the fantastic scenery that we missed checking out last time we were in the area.
Insignia docked at Port Otago — aka Port Chalmers — about a 25-minute shuttle ride from the Octagon … the Dunedin city center. Although the ship was cleared shortly after 7:00a, we dallied another 30 minutes before disembarking because our rental car was not due to be delivered until 8:00a. Warren, with whom we spoke yesterday to confirm that Port Otago was the same as Port Chalmers, was prompt. Efficient, too. He had all the paperwork ready and once we signed on the dotted line, we were off.
In 2015, one of the things we did out of Dunedin was to drive the Southern Scenic Highway (SSH) to take in the Catlins. It was a long drive — I think we did several hundred miles that day. With no time to dally along the first part of the route, we sadly bypassed the beautiful beach scenery in our quest to get further south to see the yellow-eyed penguins.
A yellow-eyed penguin welcomes us to Port Otago.
It took a while to find our way to the start of the SSH. The GPS tried to take us to every waypoint we programmed via Route 1 — the motorway. Eventually, we decided to get to where we wanted to go via our 2015 farm-stay accommodations — still programmed in our NZ/Australia GPS — as we knew we could find our way to the day’s first stop from there. It worked like a charm and soon after we passed the B&B, we saw the sign for Tunnel Beach.
Parking the rental at the trailhead, we were delighted to see there were very few cars there … a good indication that we would have the place nearly to ourselves … at least for a while. Running through private farmland, the DOC [Department of Conservation] track was a short .6 miles (1 km), but it was steep … going down nearly 500 feet (150 m) in that distance … with very few switchbacks.
About halfway down, we got our first glimpse of the headland and cliffs, and the beach in between. The light was not ideal for photography as we were walking into the sun, but that didn’t stop us from clicking off a few photos as we made our way to the headland. By the time we got there, the only other two people who were clambering around the highest point were gone. It was nice to have the place to ourselves.
Next we headed to the hand-carved tunnel for which the small, low-tide-only, sandy cove is named. The tunnel was commissioned in the 1870s by John Cargill, a civic leader, to give his young daughters access to the beach during those Victorian times when ladies did not show themselves in public when wearing bathing suits. Going down the dimly-lit 72 steps, we found ourselves scrambling over a small field of boulders before setting foot on the sand.
The main draw of the beach are the towering sandstone cliffs on either side of the cove. The sea, crashing into the cliffs, covered the sand periodically, creating a mirror effect with reflections that were a highlight of my morning. Best, of course, was that we had the place to ourselves for about 30 minutes before more and more people started streaming out of the tunnel. Most just stayed a minute or two before leaving to tackle the return trek, so we still had a good amount of solo-time to examine the chitons, and mussels, and shells, and much more embedded into the cliffs.
The surprise find of our beach visit was a little blue penguin at the back of a small cave. It blended in so well with the boulders filling the back half of the cave that we might have missed it if another couple had not mentioned the penguin to us. The penguin looked like it was sleeping, its eyes closed as it stood upright … perhaps guarding a nest. After stopping a young boy from scrambling over the rocks into the dim interior of the cave, we decided not to share our knowledge of the penguin with others … hopefully no one else tried to do anything so foolish as to disturb the poor little guy.
When the number of people coming onto the beach exceeded the number departing, it was time for us to take our leave. The return trek was slow-going. As steep as it was coming down, it felt much steeper going back up. So, we took our time, making frequent stops under the guise of taking photographs — which we actually did because the light was better by this time, and the scenery all the more spectacular.
From the top of the headland, we have a view of both sides of the scenic shoreline.
Mirror Image!
Back in the car, we followed the signs towards Brighton, a small seaside village … one that our GPS couldn’t pinpoint when we tried to use it as a waypoint. Another very scenic beach or two or three … these far more easily accessed than Tunnel Beach. Parking the car in a small pullout near a beach popular with surfers, we walked along the pedestrian way, totally satisfied with the views from our higher vantage point.
At one point between two beaches, we climbed up to the top of a rock outcropping for an even better view of the scenery. It was low tide, and the wide expanse of sand invited us to wander down there. But we resisted the temptation as we knew that with Insignia scheduled for a 4:00p departure, our time was limited. Instead, we hopped back in the car to continue our drive further down the SSH. We made it to Taieri Mouth, looking along the way for a place to get a bite to eat — to no avail. There might have been eateries inland from where we were, but we didn’t want to lose sight of the scenery we had come to see. Thanks to the protein bars we had packed, we didn’t starve, though, so all was OK.
Brighton Beach Panorama
At 1:00p, we began the return drive to Port Chalmers. The distance we had covered was less than 50 miles (80 km), but who knew what kind of traffic we might encounter on a workday. By 2:30p, we were topping off the gas tank; 15 minutes after that we were locking up the car — the keys placed in the boot [trunk] as instructed by Warren. A few minutes to use the “fast-ish” internet in the terminal, and we were back on the ship shortly after 3:00p.
A slow, calm afternoon with no breezes to speak of allowed us a fume-free sailaway experience … YAY!
Taiaroa Head Lighthouse … the tiny white dots are royal albatrosses that nest here.
When we started our day, I wasn’t sure how renting a car was going to work out for this short port call. By the time we returned the car, I knew it was the best choice we could have made. Now we are looking forward to a return to Milford Sound tomorrow … not just because of the scenery, but because it will afford us a well-earned day at sea.
© 2015-2017 — All rights reserved by Erin Erkun.
One thing about cruises, you get that one day for a shore excursion, and you must be back onboard by 4 or 5, or else get left behind. Too much pressure! For sure, you can't do it all, right? You guys made a good choice today since the weather was so lovely.
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