Features

Port Chalmers is a funky little port town full of historic buildings and artsy stores. It's the perfect day trip, rain or shine, just 20 minutes of water and sky away from the city centre.

Get there:
   It's about a 20-minute drive to Port Chalmers, which is 15km from the city centre, and a very scenic one too. Head past the stadium towards the smell of fertiliser and you'll get there eventually. 
   Alternatively, a bus leaves Cumberland Street Stand 4 (outside Countdown) 17 times daily on a weekday, seven times on a Saturday, and three times each on Sundays and public holidays.
   NB: When (or 'if', for the pessimists) the Council ever cottons on to the idea of public transport, they might listen to the plea of the masses and once more start up a passenger train from Port Chalmers to the City, which would be completely awesome.
 
   To do:
   As these fringe 'burbs so often are, Port Chalmers is a hub for all things a little bit alternative and artsy. There are a few great little cafes, and a corner store if you require a big old-fashioned ice-cream cone to top off your day’s outing. You can rummage through some great vintage stores and second-hand stores – all packed to the rafters with historic flotsam and jetsam. There is also some very original hand-crafted jewellery by local manufacturers available, and several art galleries with a variety of great local work, often incorporating the stunning landscape of the harbour, to stir the sentiments of locals and the wallets of visitors.
   One of the 3000 local residents is contemporary artist Ralph Hotere. Hotere and other artists of the region are known for continuously kicking up a highly artistic fuss about the continuing industrialisation of the beautiful spot. There is no doubt that the epic cranes, stacks of containers, and mountain of sawdust do make somewhat of an impact on the idyllic hill-sheltered bay. 
   If you make a visit, don’t forget to walk/drive the small hill to the Lookout Memorial to get an awesome view out towards the ocean, and back across the town. Port Chalmers is also the gateway to many a gorgeous beach and scenic harbour drive.
 
   Long, long ago:
   Post Chalmers has certainly played its part in Dunedin's more dramatic historical moments. On 23 March 1848 the ship John Wickliffe rocked up to the friendly bay to unleash the first shipment of fiery Scottish settlers onto the unsuspecting landscape. The lucky newcomers were treated to a long row down the harbour to a scanty settlement and the task of building settlers’ barracks on the foreshore, near what is now the Exchange. The next batch arrived on the Phillip Lang in April. In 1882 New Zealand's first refrigerated meat shipment left the Port on the ship Dunedin, destined for London. It was also this fair port that farewelled Captain Scott on his last Antarctic expedition, in November 1910. There is a large stone monument above the town to commemorate this. For the academically inclined the local museum will be more than happy to saturate you with local salience.
   Today the historic deep-water Port still receives most of the city’s larger ships. It plays proud host to a parade of luxury cruise liners in season, and tonnes of rusty container ships the rest of the year round. When 'Cruise Ship Season' hits, Dunedin is inundated with excitable, chubby Americans wearing fanny-packs and impeccably clean sneakers. We bring busloads of them into town, often only for the day, when various cruise ships dock at Port Chalmers. They are greeted on arrival by a variety of sturdy southern teen buskers, whom they more often than not ignore as they scurry for the nearest souvenir stand. Dunedin has grown more and more desperate since opening its shores to passing cruisers in the 1990s to secure these fat-walleted foreigners. More than 60 ships are booked to visit in 2011 so while Port Chalmers may be quietly quirky most of the time, it will really bustle when the wind blows right.
 
   Rock on:
   There is Chicks. Not the short-skirted kind, or the squawky, feathery kind ... the kitch-little-historic-hotel-with-a-happening-music-scene kind. Chicks Hotel, established in 1886, boasts itself as being famously the destination for “the cheapest booze, the nastiest slags, and the most fun times to be had this side of the Pacific.” Their colourful history is full of stories of secret tunnels, opium dens, and vengeful murderers. Today's proprietors have seen fit to slot into the lively Dunedin music scene. Dunedinmusic.com describes the place as “a well known haunt of various iconic Dunedin artists.” They say that Chicks has seen “A heady mix of crazy locals, wharfies, and students” over the years. Much like Port Chalmers as a whole, actually.