Our first port of call after Fjordlands National Park was the scenic town of Dunedin, which was located on New Zealand's South Island.  We arrived on a calm morning and were struck by the simple beauty of the green hills surrounding the harbor.

     We took a tour bus into town and drove past simple, well kept homes with clothes hanging outside drying in the wind.  It reminded us of life in Seattle in the early 1960's.  We reached the beautiful, historic train station and boarded the Taieri Gorge Railway for a trip into the countryside. We enjoyed the views of the Taieri River and green farmland and then we slowly started climbing into the gorge. The gorge got narrower and steeper and we saw beautiful waterfalls. We finally reached the high plateau, where parts of the Lord of the Rings was filmed.  The barren plains and hills were dotted with large boulders.  We saw evidence of the sheep farms, which were a big part of the local economy. We had a nice lunch on the train and then enjoyed the return trip to Dunedin.  We stopped to explore the grounds around the train station and then returned to the ship.