To celebrate 150 years of Port Otago’s presence in Port Chalmers, the organisation opened its gates and let the community nosy around its usually fenced-off and forbidden areas.
The day featured tours of the Maersk Monte Lascar container ship, and rides on one of three Port Otago tugboats.
The Sames and Espiard families attended the event and everyone agreed that the highlight was seeing a re-enactment of a water rescue featuring a helicopter.
Elora’s father, Marc, said after the helicopters, his favourite thing was "whatever keeps the kids quiet".
"The fire trucks are always good, aren’t they; I mean, the boats, the tours and the amount of things for the kids to do ... it’s such a well-organised event."
"There’s so many activities and it’s such a cool opportunity to show in a fun way what happens behind the gates."
Older people might remember fishing off the end of the jetty, an activity they would not have had an opportunity to do for many years, until yesterday.
"So far the feedback has been great ... everyone is especially loving how we planned such great weather.
"Just the opportunity to wander around the wharf at your own pace is quite rare and people were loving it."
Ms Bennett said more than 2000 people attended yesterday’s event.
"Port Chalmers is a small community, but people have come from far and wide — we’ve had an absolutely awesome response."
