Hiking at the hilly town of Port Chalmers, South Island, New Zealand/Carlos Pueblo

Hiking at the hilly town of Port Chalmers, South Island, New Zealand/Carlos Pueblo

After three days at sea, we landed at Port Chalmers on the southeast of the South Island of New Zealand. It was raining a little bit, on and off sometime. New Zealand is very unique in scenery, rolling stone hills with plenty of green vegetation such as the forest and huge grass field. The ship moors at a pier by a huge lumber yard ready to ship the log to Japan to make the paper. Most of the passengers are passing through a big hall of the Port Authority to gather their land excursion and use the free WiFi. After sending out my needed e-mail, I went hiking at the hilly town of Port Chalmers while most people went ahead to visit another larger city of Dunedin in adjacent to the port.

The township is about 1,000 residents with two main streets, George Rod and Church Rd. I started from the Church Rd by visiting the city library to get a map and chatted with a lady librarian about the city. She teases me that if there is a city after all and actually the city hall is right across the Church Rd by a small fee paid museum. I walked up hill on Church Rd toward a lovely high standing Presbyterian stony church on the lower bottom exit. I assume that the early Scots immigrant built this church. There are pretty home gardens along one side of the road with roses and some other colorful flowers. I have my Pentax regular lens replaced by a 400 feet wide angle lens in order to catch the neighbor's yard some distance away. I saw several olive trees on a backyard with green fruits on the branches like a grove. I was attracted by another beautiful home garden with red roses and turned into that direction. Quickly, I came back to the other end of the George Rd. There are still flowers in front of the apartment houses and gradually was into the city center. I went inside the library and reported my found to the same lady. She recommended me go back to the Church Rd and continue up to the second exit to a rhododendron out look post and a third exit to the city cemetery.

The flowers were still on fully bloomed. On the platform, I could have a very nice view of the island with my binocular. The sun came out finally and there were people entered the small garden park. On the top of out look platform, I felt like in a paradise. I was a little bit tired and decided to go back to the ship. I cut short my path by continuing further out on the 2nd exit and ran into the 3rd exit route to the city cemetery. It is a rolling stone hill style and with a good view of the Bay yet not directly connected. New Zealand has been independent only after two decades of the WWII; therefore, many local young residents had been served during the wars involving the British Empire and even now still join force with the United Kingdom. I followed the path with huge woods down hill to the port.

I went back to the library again to thank the librarian again for her recommendation. She was very glad that I made and thought of being a tourist guide. She thought that I was pretty fit physically with my age.