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Former cruise-ship worker Teresa Cadogan loved Dunedin so much, she decided to live here. She now takes cruise-ship passengers on tours around the city as part of her job with Tinto Bus Services. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
Formerly from England, Mrs Cadogan had been working as a casino supervisor on ships since 1994, travelling to exotic locations from the Bahamas to the Far East, but only one place made her cry.
In 1996, she spent six months on the Sky Princess, sailing around the world.
However, it was her first New Zealand port of call, Dunedin, which made the greatest impression.
"I just fell in love with the place.
"It reminded me of family holidays in Scotland.
"The buildings were familiar and the people were friendly."
Mrs Cadogan said despite only spending eight hours in the city, she cried as the vessel left Otago Harbour and vowed she would come back to the city to live.
But it would prove to be a long wait.
Returning to her home in Essex for family reasons, she attended as many New Zealand tourism and immigration expos as she could before deciding to return to the country at the end of 2004.
"I decided to save Dunedin to last.
"Everywhere else I spent a couple of days, but I ended staying a fortnight here."
Returning to England, she decided "I wasn't finished with Dunedin", and sold her flat and returned in July 2005 as a University of Otago student.
Marrying her Australian husband Steffan in 2007, Mrs Cadogan said still retained in active interest in the cruise ships visiting Port Otago.
"I would always go down to Aramoana and run down the mole to watch the ships and remember the sound the engine used to make."
While working as a Department of Conservation volunteer, tourists were always asking her about the city and "they would say I should be a tour guide", and so she decided to get her bus driver's licence,Since October, she has driven for Tinto Bus Services, of Kaikorai Valley Rd, as a charter bus driver, and "I am always talking on the bus even when the cruise-ship charters have a guide . . . but I always ask first".
Mrs Cadogan said she liked to tell them how she lived on a cruise ship and how she came to love Dunedin.
Her story had moved a few passengers to tears.
"I tell them Dunedin is the best-kept secret."
- hamish.mcneilly@odt.co.nz
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