Dunedin, NZ

February 2, 2013.  Groundhog Day - try explaining that one to people who live in almost perfect climates!!  Today we docked in Dunedin.  This city was founded in1848 by a group of Presbyterian Scots and named it Dunedin (Scottish Gaelic for Edinburgh).  It was designed to resemble the capital of Scotland.  We took the Taieri Gorge Train trip.  We were on our way to see the beautiful and rugged Taieri River Gorge, lots of sheep, Christmas Creek, where a miner found gold on Christmas Day in 1863 and a land where the first people, the ancient Maori, called "Hills of Heaven".  The train took us to the interior where we think we saw most of the 30-40 milion sheep that live in this country along side the 4.5 million people.  The hills are alive with sheep, cattle and horses.

Dale, Marty, Cynthia and Jim in front of our train car.

Shadows made from the tressle we are going over and our train.

Our trip started with morning coffee.  We have decided that both the New Zealanders and the Australians can not get through their day without morning coffee.  Ours consisted of mimosas, coffeeor tea and a biscuit on the train.

Lunch was a box lunch of wraps, sandwiches, vegetable salad, fruit and a pudding cup along with a coke.  We were also given a bottle of water,

The scenery was lovely and so fun to eat on the train as we drove through multiple tunnels and above or along the beautiful gorge.

We stopped at a sheep ranch and Cynthia and Marty purchased some real wool toy lambs.

Sheep dotted the country side.

They were everywhere.

The train returned to the station that was built in 1906.  The Dunedin Railway Station is the most photographed building in NZ.

The central room is completely tiled in Royal Doulton ceramic tiles and has beautiful colored stain glass windows.

The floor tile.  We took the train back to the ship and enjoyed the beautiful sun before heading off to dinner.  Steak Diane for our meal ad some lovely singers for entertainment.  Late night was watching "The Marriage Show" - take off of the Newly Wed Game.  Always good for some laughs.