Dunedin, NZ Questions

[Brookeh424]

We were planning on booking a princess 1/2 day excursion that did a city tour and then visited Larnach Castle. (Leaving us time to walk around and visit the cadbury facroty on our own). Well the excursion is waitlisted, so I am trying to have a back up plan.....SUGGESTIONS???

 

Does the ship dock close to the city?

How much would a taxi be to Larnach?

Could we easily do this by ourselves?

ETC....

 

THANKS.

[mringenoldus]

Not sure how soon your cruise is - but I highly suggest that you contact Arthurs Tours. You will receive great service!!

[kaseyoz]

we are hiring a car in dunedin as we are 5 people, it is a much better cost effective move. It is costing us 65 NZD for the day.

 

I think you would be able to do this yourself, just remember they drive on the opposite side of the road than you (same as us)

also it will be a public holiday when we are at Dundedin.

 

will post website with some details on it not sure if you have already seen this one.If you want the name of car hire company let me know

 

The ship doesnt dock at dunedin but port chalmers which i think is around 30 mins drive away(not sure about that though

 

http://www.cityofdunedin.com/city/?page=visiting_mustsee

[mringenoldus]

Just a word of caution on car rental. I read in last month's Conde Nast that our car insurance (even when booking with credit cards that offer coverage) does not apply in a few countries - and New Zealand is one of them. Be sure to take the agency's coverage. The man in the article owes $17000 in spite of Ombudsman's attempt to help him following an accident.

[kaseyoz]

The car and company we have has insurance but with a NZD1200 excess (wow), for NZD10 a day i can bring that down.

Thanks for the heads up

 

karon

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Sapphire was due in Dunedin yesterday, but had to cancel the call due to high winds.

The port is at Port Chalmers,about 25/30 minutes away from Dunedin.

Larnach Castle is great,but is best done with a tour or a group, as you get all the history and background on the place.Another great old home to visit is Olveston,but you need to check on tour times, as you can only visit inside, with a guided tour.It is fully furnished and set up, as if the family were still living there.

[mringenoldus]

I sure hope that doesn't happen to us next week! I have been looking forward to our tour with Arthur for almost a year. It's the one port I really don't want to miss.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

I sure hope that doesn't happen to us next week! I have been looking forward to our tour with Arthur for almost a year. It's the one port I really don't want to miss.

 

I don't think it's ever happened before.The channel up the harbour is very narrow,with not much room to manouvere,and a few sandbanks to dodge.Perhaps they are being a bit more careful since Regal Princess had its scrape.

[Brookeh424]

Thanks, I think we have decided if we can't get on the Princess excursion to just take the shuttle and walk around the city ourselves (skiping Larnach Castle). We'd probably just visit Cadbury and Speights......(although the factory/brewery may both be closed being the day after Easter....we'll see).

[mringenoldus]

Whew! That's a very reassuring thing to hear. Thanks!

[ErinH1]

Dunedin was my favorite port, so I hope all goes well for you there. As others have mentioned, it takes about 20-30 minutes to get from the port to the Dunedin visitors centers. We hired a car from Hertz, which was about a 15 min. walk from the visitors center (not counting the time we first spent walking in the exact opposite direction of where we needed to go!). On our walk there were plenty of ATMs to get your NZD. The Hertz people we kind enough to drive us back to the ship at the end of the day, otherwise we had planned to take a taxi back. I believe some credit cards cover rentals in NZ, I used MC. Otherwise, the insurance through Hertz was $22 NZD.

 

A taxi from the ship to Larnach Castle would be quite expensive I would think. When I did my research in advance the cost for hiring a taxi all day was approx $65 NZD per hour. Our Hertz rental was about $55 USD for the entire day.

 

Driving was not too bad--our first experience at driving on the left. It's just those turnabouts that made me nervous, but you're probably used to them since they exisit in your part of the U.S. as well. We had a wonderful day driving up the Otago Peninsula first visiting Penguin Place, a quick stop at the Albatross Colony (too windy & cold), Happy Hens, and then Larnach Castle. We actually were getting nervous about the time, so only were able to see the exterior at Larnach.

 

We saw the Cadbury Factory and Railroad station on our walk to Hertz. Yummy meat pie place right next to Hertz! I had e-mailed Arthur a few times but never heard back from him, so we very happily did this port on our own.

[Brookeh424]

Erin---thanks for the informative post. I would like to see Pengiun Place. :)

[M&A]

Can anyone tell me if there is public transport, train or bus from the port to Dunedin? We would like to wander around Dunedin by ourselves.

 

thanks

Mike

[Kiwi Kruzer]

There is a local bus that leaves from the main street (almost the only street) opposite the port gates and up the hill a bit.Not sure of the timetable.We gave up waiting and flagged a taxi into Dunedin, and got him to drop us off at the Octagon,(Dunedins main Town Square) where the Visitors Centre is.We also asked him to show us where to catch the bus back to the port,and that was a really interesting trip as it winds around some of the suburbs on the way.Dunedin is very walkable,as it is a compact city.It is also a University town so lots of students,unless they are on holiday.We also walked to the Botanical Gardens and then got a bus back,hopping off at the steepest street.

The visitors centre also runs 1/2 day tours .

Some cruise lines run a shuttle bus.P&O run a free shuttle from the port to the city,but I dont think Princess are that generous.

[M&A]

There is a local bus that leaves from the main street (almost the only street) opposite the port gates and up the hill a bit.Not sure of the timetable.We gave up waiting and flagged a taxi into Dunedin, and got him to drop us off at the Octagon,(Dunedins main Town Square) where the Visitors Centre is.We also asked him to show us where to catch the bus back to the port,and that was a really interesting trip as it winds around some of the suburbs on the way.Dunedin is very walkable,as it is a compact city.It is also a University town so lots of students,unless they are on holiday.We also walked to the Botanical Gardens and then got a bus back,hopping off at the steepest street.

The visitors centre also runs 1/2 day tours .

Some cruise lines run a shuttle bus.P&O run a free shuttle from the port to the city,but I dont think Princess are that generous.

 

Thanks for the good info David, we are hikers/walkers so we would like to walk around the town.

[ErinH1]

Can anyone tell me if there is public transport, train or bus from the port to Dunedin? We would like to wander around Dunedin by ourselves.

 

thanks

Mike

 

Princess has a shuttle from Port Chalmers to Dunedin Visitors Center, the cost was very reasonable at approx $5-$10 pp.

[mare s.]

thanks for the info on the Princess shuttle...we're on the March 24 cruise. We also decided to see Dunedin on our own...we made our own reservations for the Speight's Brewery Tour and for lunch in their Alehouse and we're just going to wander around the rest of the time. We're doing so many other organized tours that we felt we wanted at least one day to just get a close up feel for a city.

[doyleb]

We were planning on booking a princess 1/2 day excursion that did a city tour and then visited Larnach Castle. (Leaving us time to walk around and visit the cadbury facroty on our own). Well the excursion is waitlisted, so I am trying to have a back up plan.....SUGGESTIONS???

 

THANKS.

 

We did the Diamond cruise last year and took this excursion from Princess. We were not impressed with the tour company or the driver. Larnach Castle was great, but for me - personal opinion only here - the driver spent too much time talking about the local football team - we even spent 10 minutes parked outside the staduim!

 

Friends on the cruise took the train tour and had a blast - that one fills up fast as well.

 

Best of luck the city is beautiful and I hope you can enjoy it.

BD

[MVPinBoynton]

How horrible to miss Dunedin. I hope future cruisers get to visit this lovely port. I second the recommendation on Arthur's Tours. Just a marvelous day. If I had to skip one of the stops, it would have been Larnach Castle. There is just too many things to see. The Albatross Colony and Penguin Place were just marvelous. Be sure to get some Hokey Pokey ice cream in Dunedin. Wonderful stuff indeed.

[Brookeh424]

I am checking into car rentals.....thanks Kaseyoz and erin.

[scattley]

regarding Cadburys

 

They have strict tour times and there is usually a waiting list. When I went there last at 1pm I could not get into a tour until 3.45pm. So have a backup plan. The tours fill up early in the day.

[Brookeh424]

If you go to the Cadbury World website, you can reserve your tour time. We already chose a time (quite randomly), so hopefully it will work out. :) But it does say they can fill up...

[kaseyoz]

Plus the day both brooke and i are there it is public holiday so they are not doing full tours, but we will still go. Need to get around to booking though

 

karon

[Kiwi Kruzer]

When we were in Dunedin it was over the Christmas/New Year break and the factory was closed,but you could still do a tour, of sorts. You sat in a theatre and watched a video,and could then go to the factory shop and buy all the goodies you wanted.We gave it a miss.

It is a good landmark though, as the bus back to the port leaves from just over the road.

[kaseyoz]

david, can you go in the shop if you are not on a tour?

 

we seem to have so many places on our list we want to see, something has to go.

we are going to finalise some kind of itinerary this weekend for our ports of call. But we will probably change these as we drive around

 

karon