New Zealand: Dunedin-Otago

Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula

March 21-24, 2008

We drove 5 1/2 hours southeast to Dunedin, a nice college town where Otago University is located, and another 45 minutes out to its Otago peninsula on the scariest narrow hairpin turns we've ever encountered, usually with no shoulders and no guardrails. The views are breathtaking, if you can look, since you're right on the edge of a cliff with the water way down below.


At dusk we drove up to the Royal Albatross Centre, on top of a cliff, very high, at the northern tip of the peninsula. The winds were gusting strongly and we were afraid we'd get blown off. Royal albatross are huge, with a wingspan that can reach 3 metres, and they need the wind to help them lift off; then they glide on wind currents. That evening we saw a lot of them gliding above. The next day we went back to the Centre for a guided tour of the royal albatross conservation project. They maintain a colony where the birds nest and share "incubation duty" until the chicks are born (one per family); then they take turns guarding and feeding them. We were watching with binoculars from a glassed-in observation booth and could see the birds zooming in toward us as they circled around and came down to feed their chicks--it was thrilling; we also saw the chicks waiting for them and the homecoming. Bob's camera couldn't focus well enough at the required speed to get them really sharp.

Royal albatross homing in	Royal albatross chick

We also took a tour at Penguin Place, the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Conservation Reserve nearby, set aside on a very large farm. We got to see the penguins close up through hides and tunnels. Some had just come back in from the ocean and were taking tentative steps toward mating dances. It's hard to see that their eyes are yellow. We also saw blue penguins at dusk coming back out of the ocean to their nests, but it was too dark to photograph them. In the water they look a lot like ducks.We were lucky to see one blue penguin sleeping in its nest in daytime.


Yellow-eyed penguin	Yellow-eyed penguin in nest	Yellow-eyed penguins interacting

Blue penguin sleeping in nest	Shore birds on railing	Sea gull

Naturally, we also walked on the beach and saw a lot of shore birds, giant kelp, and sleeping fur seals.


Sea gull	Spoonbills

White-faced heron		Giant kelp

Sleeping fur seal	Waking fur seal

We hiked up a cliff from one of the bays across a sheep and cattle farm, and on a different hike through a sheep farm, by two steep hills called The Pyramids, to Victory Beach.


Bob	Grasses on the path	Aya walking toward the Pyramids

Our destination, Victory Beach	Sheep grazing near a beach	Portrait

Back in Dunedin for one day, we stayed at a motel near the Octagon, the center of town, full of shops and restaurants. The university was pleasant; the railway station was the most impressive sight in town.


Kiwi Mac's	Dunedin railway station	Taieri Gorge Railway, which we didn't have a chance to take

Gorgeous station interior	Station floor	An upstairs window panel

The pair of stained glass windows facing each other upstairs