A muse on the Muse.

[drron29]

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We drove to Fern Gully-the end of the previous Main Road.It ends where the long walks from Lees bay end.However no parking area and a few cars so just a photo of the sign and off.Several walks of 1-4 hours from here.

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t was getting close to lunch time so we went to a restaurant and oyster bar that gets good reviews.

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Apparently they do well enough not to worry about the visit of an upmarket cruise ship.The other place for lunch were the pub,a couple of cafes and a fish and chips van.Both the pub and the fish and chips place were very busy.As we were to hand the car back at 2pm we decided to have a simple lunch back on the ship.

[drron29]

So we continued our drive out to Harrold bay with a couple of detours.At first it appeared like a bird on some rocks.But just a warning beacon.

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And Leask bay which obviously was a whaling station in previous times.

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[Chameleon]

Have just read all of your postings! We are going on the Silver Muse in March and its lovely to see some of what the ship has to offer! 

[drron29]

We went up a side road with a sign leading to another bay.The road ended at the top of a cliff.No views due to the trees.several houses one with a nice display of Japanese hydrangeas.

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Coming back down the hill.

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[drron29]

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Back to Leask bay.

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Then back up another side road.

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[drron29]

The golf course was here with the magnificent clubhouse.

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And some more flowers.

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[drron29]

So back down the hill.It's amazing what you miss when you don't look behind you.

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And no selfie sticks were used in the making of this photo.

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[drron29]

A little further along another view of the golf course.I think this would be my favourite hole-long but all downhill.This fellow though has lost his ball.

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And our chariot.They had obviously run out of cars so we got someones own car.Near new,only 84000Km on the clock-so nearly 2000 times around the island.

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Back to the main road.

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We then drove up the hill overlooking town to a new deveopement.Good views.

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[drron29]

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And back to town.

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[drron29]

The last bit of our drive was over to Golden Valley and the 400 metres up the coast you can drive from there.

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[drron29]

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Then back to town to drop the car off.

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Waiting for the tender you could see a lot of kelp

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Back on board and we went to the Arts Cafe for a late lunch.Rojaan liked the flowers.

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The locals were using the water taxi to get a closer look at the ship

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[drron29]

The Arts cafe became one of our favourite spots on the Muse.We used it for afternoon tea and for a light lunch after we had been onshore.Today I had the octopus salad and a pancetta role whilst rojaan had a prawn salad and a strawberry creme dessert.

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We then left Stewart Island.

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[drron29]

It was good to have a basically fine day again.There had just been a couple of spots of rain when on the Island.A few more islands before we were off the southern part of the South Island.

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[drron29]

So back to a few food posts.First a dinner in Atlantide.I had an impressive appetiser of prosciutto,tomatoes and cheese and rojaan had a duck salad.

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For mains I had the argentinian beef that was supposedly prime rib but it really was tough and sinewy.

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Rojaan had a pear dessert.

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Another dinner in Atlantide.I am only using pics of dishes we haven't had before.I had a tuna appetiser and then a tomato soup with meatballs.

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Rojaan had the king prawns whilst I had the biggest veal chop I have ever had.

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It was really tender and tasty though.
Though with all this food I am cutting down at brekkie.This is it.

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[drron29]

 

Lunch on the pool deck.Rojaan had a caesar salad with chicken and i a classic Reuben sandwich.

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Very good.

La Terraza dinner.I had the octopus salad.

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For mains rojaan had the scallopini and I the NY strip loin

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The meat was really good.
I had cassata and I forget what rojaan had.

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We shared the dinner with 2 ladies from Tennessee.Delightful company.

 

 

[drron29]

 

Another lunch at the Art cafe.Ham and cheese roll with a banana creme dessert and for me a spicy prawn salad and a salami roll.

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Then a Hot Rocks dinner.

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Everyone gets some corn chips and dips.

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Rojaan had the lamb chops and I the prime rib eye.The meats were excellent.

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Finishing with the cheesecake.

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[drron29]

 

Back to the cruise.Arriving in Port Lyttleton.A beautiful church dominates.

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Docking.

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Then from the shuttle taking us into Dunedin.

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[drron29]

 

So to Dunedin.You can see the weather gods are at last being very kind to us.We wandered around town with some retail therapy for rojaan whilst I took some shots of interesting buildings.

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The court buildings.

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We had walked down to the impressive railway station.

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Across the road is the Cadbury factory.No tours now but the brochures said the shop was still open.sadly didn't appear to be true.

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The station isn't just beautiful outside.

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[jpalbny]

Love those Hot Rocks shots. We eat there at least once every cruise.

 

Port Chalmers looks very peaceful. On our Australia/NZ cruise in 2008, it was the site of great anxiety for us. It's the only time in all of our travels that we almost missed the ship.

 

We had rented a car and went off on our own that day, as we often do. We visited a bunch of places and had allowed plenty of time to get back, except as I was getting ready to return the rental car I could not find my little wallet with the ship's keycard anywhere! To make matters worse, my driver's license and my ATM card were safely tucked into that little wallet too, so now I'd lost both of them. Ugh.

 

We backtracked to the town of Dunedin and I checked where I'd last seen it, pulling it out of my pocket to use the ATM. Guess I hadn't dropped it there. So we returned the rental car and got a ride back to the port. They grudgingly let us in with only Chris's ID. We were about 3 minutes after sailaway so the ship was looking for us. I guess that helped.

 

And my wallet, with the ship's keycard and my driver's license was waiting for me at the front desk! Turns out that I had dropped it in the parking lot at one of our stops earlier that day. A group from the cruise ship was also visiting and someone had found it and brought it back to the ship for me. What a stroke of dumb luck!

 

Dunedin is a nice-looking town. One of the Neurologists who used to practice in Albany actually went to the Medical School there. Did you tour the place? 😉

Edited February 21, 2019 by jpalbny

[drron29]

We just walked around JP.We have both visited Dunedin a few times.I in fact was first there early in 1968 for an Australasian Medical students convention.Quite a few stories with that visit.

A group that did the train trip to the gorge almost missed the sailing as some other travellers who were on a later train got on the SS service displacing them.

Anyway back to Dunedin.

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On the top floor of the station there is a New Zealand Sports Museum and a gallery run by a local artist's group.We liked some of the paintings.

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The artist was working in the next room.

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There is a train that does regular 3 hour trips along the coast.However if we had gone on this one a strong possibility that we would miss the last shuttle back to the ship.

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[drron29]

 

Flower gardens at the railway station.

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On the way back to the CBD we stopped at the Best Restaurant-a fish and chips place again in the hands of the family that started it 92 years ago.I had the blue cod with a whitebait pattie.Mrsdrron had the monkfish.

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The fish was perfectly cooked as were the chips.The whitebait pattie was disappointing.Said to be the same recipe as 92 years ago but my memories of 50 years ago were of a lot more whitebait.
I washed mine down with a beer from Invercargill.

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Why Stanley Green?Well he was a NZ soldier who died in a training accident in WW2.He left behind a wife and 7 weeks old daughter.His grandson is the brewer.

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The English would like this place as the meals are served with these condiments.

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[drron29]

 

The last of Dunedin.

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There is no second story to these buildings.just the facade left.

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And back to the ship.

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[drron29]

 

Sail away.

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The cloud soon started rolling in.

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[drron29]

Possibly an old wharf.

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The pilot boat meets the swell.

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A brave fellow comes to the end of the breakwater to get a photo of the Muse.Then joined by a second.

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The pilot boat comes in for the rendevous.

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[drron29]

They really make this operation look easy.

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The cloud cover is now complete and yet again we miss out on sunset

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