Traveling with Ray Owens

We arrived in New Zealand for another “Wow, I can’t believe we are here!” moment.

This truly has been a marvelous experience. I have been so very privileged in my life. I have visited place that as a child I never dreamed I would get to see: standing on the Great Wall of China, experiencing the art of the Louvre in Paris, seeing the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the fiords of Norway, and now I get to experience the people and places of Australia and New Zealand.

Today we visited Dunedin. A city that people from Scotland came and settled here in 1848.

However the story is the same as in North America, Australia, Singapore and many others. When Europeans came there were already people living here.

Archaeological evidence shows the first Māori occupation of the wider Dunedin area occurred within decades of their arrival in New Zealand (1280–1320).

The Scottish settlers brought with them a love of Scotland. The name Dunedin is the Galicia name for Edinburgh. Many of the streets borrow the names of streets from back in Scotland.

One of the streets with connection to Edinburgh is Baldwin street. The distinction is the one in Edinburgh is a relatively flat street. Whereas the one in Dunedin has been recognition in Guinness as the steepest street in the world.

We also got to visit the Dunedin Railroad station described as a gingerbread style.

The town is quite lovely and did indeed remind me of Scotland.

It was a lovely day topped off with a very good performance by our assistant cruise director Ellie. She is a singer.