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This company operates a boat tour to Taiaroa Head Nature Reserve and the albatross colony. Minimum numbers apply. Subject to minimum numbers, departures from Portobello at 10AM, 1:15PM and 4PM from 1 October to 31 March. Outside of these dates by arrangement. Departures from Back Beach, Port Chalmers upon request 10 minutes later.
Originally called the Jerusalem Hotel, it was built in 1876 After the original owner had financial problems it was purchased in 1879 by George Chick and from then on it was known as Chick's. In 1903 the Port Chalmers electorate went ‘dry’ and Chick's lost its licence. Hotels at the port banded together, taking their case as far as the Privy Council, in London, before winning back their licences in May, 1905.
From 2008 until 2016 when it closed for good it was a popular music venue, which attracted national and international acts such as Steve Albini, Sharon van Etten and Kurt Vile. The building is now used as a recording studio.
The basement was once used as an overflow jail, with meals being served with the assistance of the Chick family. Now bricked up, a smuggling tunnel lead out from the basement to the dock area. Legend has it that drunk pub patrons would be taken down and ‘shanghaied’ to wake up the next day halfway out to sea.
Stone church, built between 1871 and 1883. The church is built from Port Chalmers bluestone (breccia stone), with Oamaru stone piles and kauri interiors and a roof clad in slate scales. The church has a number of memorial windows including the Watkin-Creed memorial windows, placed in the Iona Union Church vestibule in 1974 when the Port Chalmers Methodist Church was demolished. They have not been permanently installed as a result of their different shape but rest in front of the existing stained-glass windows. Above the altar is a rose window.
This church was built from Port Chalmers bluestone (breccia stone) between 1871 and 1874 to the designs of prominent Dunedin architect R.A. Lawson. It is one of only a handful of New Zealand churches built in an Early English Gothic style according to the principles of the Academic Gothic Revival. The church building is constructed from and has several fine memorial stained-glass windows.
This building dates from 1889 and originally housed the Port Chalmers Town Hall, as well as the Town Clerk’s office, the Fire Brigade, the Police Station (including the Sergeant’s residence and cells), Court Rooms, Customs Office and Government Shipping Office. There was also a morgue that occupied a backroom downstairs. Today the library and service centre are housed in the area previously occupied by the fire brigade. Upstairs are various function rooms.
This church opened in 1878. Due to a shortage of funds the planned spire was not built. In 1898 Mother Mary MacKillop, and two Josephite Sisters, arrived into Dunedin on the request of the local parish priest to assist with teaching. Australia's first saint, Saint Mary MacKillop is also known as Saint Mary of the Cross. When they arrived they found the existing school then called St Mary’s School, to be in an old shed-like house and in a sad state of disrepair. A new school, St Joseph’s Primary School, was subsequently opened at the end of January 1898. MacKillop lived in Port Chalmers for two months and was the first Head of St Joseph’s in Port Chalmers.
Paid for largely by public subscriptions this memorial cairn commemorates Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Antarctic expedition was formally unveiled in 1914.
The structure consists of a tall and gently tapering column of Port Chalmers bluestone, surmounted by an anchor. A viewing platform gives an impressive vantage point over the port and harbour.