Dunedin

February 15
Dunedin (Port Chalmers)

Today we were docked in Port Chalmers, the port town of Dunedin. My plan was to rent a bicycle with a friend and go riding. However, either due to chance or last night’s party, my friend backed out claiming not feeling well enough for a bike ride, so I went to the crew office myself to rent a bike.
With today being the first day on the cruise in New Zealand, the ship got hit pretty hard with customs procedures, resulting in over 50 crew members getting cigarettes/alcohol confiscated by the authorities. Oddly enough, it was confiscated because they claimed too much…who knows how that works. Anyways, when I went to rent my bike, the office said that it’d have to be cleaned and passed through customs, who I was warned would be slightly impatient due to the recent events. I was advised not to rent a bike today and instead opted to go running by myself through the port area.
I got off the ship, made a left turn, and just began running along the waterfront following a road that ran the perimeter of the bay area. I had no actual goal other than to run and did that basically till I couldn’t go much further.
This area of New Zealand, along with many areas in the country where we dock, is extremely hilly. I had wanted to climb to the top of one of the hills/mountains and was looking for a trail during my run, but soon noticed that most of the roads and paths I found were private residences and fields of sheep. I did find one hill, however, where I was able to walk through an empty field, littered with dried up sheep droppings, and get some better views. I walked the field for a while till two things happened. First, I started to see the house that owned the property, and not wanting to be interrogated about trespassing through a sheep field, preferred to keep my distance. Second, I made a turn around a fenced of area and found myself 15 feet away from a sheep who had wandered far away from his herd. She looked at me with some evil New Zealand rabid sheep glare and ran off in the other direction, probably figuring that I was just scary enough not to mess with. OK, maybe not quite like that - it was probably just as startled as I was, and she turned and slowly waddled away as I stood against the fence not exactly knowing how to handle a potential guard-sheep issue. Following that exchange, I made my way back over the orginal fence I jumped and returned to running down the road.
I stopped later when I felt I’d traveled an ample distance from the ship and began walking back. I had made it quite some distance during that time, and figuring New Zealanders to be a nice group of people, I made an attempt to hitch hike my way back to the ship. There was really only that one road and it lead directly to the ship so I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to find someone to get me there. So I warmed up my thumb, started walking and looked for the next passing car to signal.
Honestly, I’m wasn’t totally comfortable with the hitch hiking idea and can’t say I made a huge effort to get a ride. I walked facing the direction of the ship, not looking at the cars I was soliciting, with my arm slightly out at my side, thumb extended…over the water bottle I was carrying. I figured any one who would stop for such an unenthusiastic attempt at hitch hiking would have to be really friendly. Well, no one stopped and I walked the entire distance back to the ship with my arm slightly further from my side than natural.
The walk back took 90 minutes (what would have been perfect hitch hiking distance). It was a nice walk though, I took some pics, and upon arriving back in the port area saw my friends at a bar where they invited me over for some drinks. I sat there talking with them, some passengers, and some old gnarly seadogs covered in tattoos that were somehow inscribed onto they’re leathery skin. One guy sitting near me had a full beard that was tar stained around his mouth from excessive smoking, which was one of those things that’s so hard to look at simply cause it’s gross, but you keep checking back to make sure you saw what you think you saw, almost trying to figure out a different explanation to make you feel better about the guy sitting by you. That lasted till I had to get back on the ship where I played a jazz set that night and that’s about all. Thanks for reading!