"They're probably the same weather conditions the John Wickliffe encountered when it arrived at Port Chalmers in 1848," festival director Sue Clarke said yesterday.
"But we're really thrilled with the programme and the events have been very well supported," Ms Clarke said.
"It has been a bit of a shame about the inclement weather. It did affect attendances at some of the outside events, but what can you do about the weather?"The Bell Hill fete on Saturday morning was a damp squib, as just a few dozen people braved the rain and cold.
"We had a steady trickle of people through," Ms Clarke said.
The steady trickle was also coming from the sky; overhead cloud and curtains of rain threatening the "Poets Adrift" event at Careys Bay on Saturday.
The sun appeared briefly, only to smirk and slink away again.
But that did not stop Careys Bay becoming, as compere Peter Hayden poetically put it, a "wonderful bay of dancing words" for the more than 100 people who attended.
"Poetry is when words sing," 2009 University of Otago Burns Fellow Michael Harlow said.
And they sang like the local seabirds floating on the stiff breeze.
Most of the poets referenced their unusual seaside situation.
"I love maritime themes," poet David Eggleton said.
"I really enjoy writing about the coast and beaches, so I think I'm in the right place."
Some visitors were content to enjoy the seafood festival.
"We just came down for the day specifically for the seafood festival," Rod Carson, of Waikouaiti, said.
"We love seafood. We get a lot of pipis off the beach up our way."
Meanwhile, Careys Bay Hotel owner Mary Kidston conducted tours of the top floor of the historic hotel, which was built in 1874.
"There are some fantastic old buildings in [the] port," she said.
The Port Chalmers United Rowing Club held its annual art auction at the Careys Bay Hotel yesterday.
Art works were donated to the auction by more than 70 local artists, including Ewan McDougall, Frank Gordon, Janet Weir, Rod Eales, Rosemary McQueen, Justin Summerton, Simon Kaan and Robert Scott.
Also yesterday, a guided tour of Dunedin's Northern Cemetery explored the often tragic lives of the Victorian-era artists and literary figures buried there.
Proceeds from the tour, led by Historic Cemeteries Conservation Trust members Chris Rudd and David Murray, are to be put towards cemetery restoration and conservation.
The highlight of the final day of the festival will be at 12.15pm today on the University of Otago Union lawn, when comedian Te Radar and professional debater and Waitaki district councillor Jim Hopkins argue the pros and cons of the politically correct world.
The fireworks will be refereed by University of Otago law school dean Prof Mark Henaghan.
The Otago Anniversary Day dinner in the Glenroy Auditorium tonight is the finale of the Dunedin Heritage Festival and Otago Anniversary Weekend celebrations.
The inaugural Bluestone Awards will be presented by the Dunedin Heritage Trust to people who have significantly contributed to Dunedin heritage.
The awards are named after the bluestone rock with which much of Dunedin's founding architecture was built.
Despite the weather, the organisers of the second Dunedin Heritage Festival can be content.
It showed, once again, that the festival is really about the spirit of Dunedin.
