Otago Peninsula
Next stop after the Catlins was the town of Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula just outside of town, home to all kinds of wildlife including penguines, seals and a royal albatross colony. Dunedin is full of steep hills (normal for all the major towns I’ve been to in this country) and quite a few cool old buildings. We got in town in the evening, stopped at the first hostel with beds available and headed out on the town. Civilization looks nice when you haven’t been around much for a week. Ate at one of the many Japanese restaurants in town (very large number for a town this size) where I got my fix of okonomiyaki, tempura and maguro sashimi. Delicious. After that we walked across the street to a pub with real cask ale and stayed there a while. As first impressions of a city go, this was a good evening.
The next morning the good weather had stayed so we headed off to explore the Otago peninsula. First stop was the Royal Albatross breeding colony at the tip of the peninsula, the only place these birds breed that isn’t an offshore island anywhere on earth. Saw adult birds incubating the eggs in the nests and quite a few juvenile birds who are returning looking for mates flying around. The wingspan on these birds is 3 meters, and they rarely flap them. Watching them soar effortlessly in the blustery wind by the cliffs is amazing, some came within a few meters of us in the air.
The Peninsula is also home to both yellow eyed and blue penguins. Since we’d since the yellow eyed penguins several times now (including having one cross the road in front of the car!) we went to the Blue penguin colony at dusk when they come back from their day of fishing. Blue penguins are the smallest penguin in the world at only just over 12 inches. Unfortunately since it was half an hour after sunset when they started returning it was too dark for any photography (flash scares them and is not allowed) but it was awesome to watch. While we were waiting, the seals entertained us…
They came ashore in groups of 10-20, slowly waddled up on the rocks stopping along the way as a group. Then up the embankment and into the hillside where their burrows are. We were only a meter or two away from them at one point and we probably saw around 100 penguins before we left when we couldn’t see anything anymore. Hilarious viewing as they hop from rock to rock and waddle up the hills!
Tags: New Zealand, Travel
Adam
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