I thought I would take the time now (while I'm avoiding my assignments) to tell you about the second trip of our weekend! Mom sprung for a wildlife tour of the Otago Peninsula including going to the Royal Albatross Center to see the baby albatross. The tour started around 2pm, giving us some time to walk around Dunedin to see some of the main attractions of the city. First we stopped at the First Church of Otago, built with the original settlement of Dunedin. Then we stopped at the railway station, the second most photographed attraction in the southern hemisphere!
First Church of Otago, opened in 1873
Dunedin Railway Station. Opened in 1906, it used to handle up to 100 trains every day!
Shortly after it was time to head back to the Octago (the city's center) but not without passing the courts of Dunedin. The first courts were originally located at the foot of Bell Hill (they were built in 1859) but had been torn down and relocated to their current location, built in 1895.
Dunedin Court House
Finally it was time to wait for the bus. After a short wait the wildlife tour bus came up (much excitement!). It was about a half hour drive from the Octagon to the end of the Peninsula to the Royal Albatross Center. At the center they monitor and help along baby royal albatross chicks. The Royal albatross is the world's largest sea bird, and only has one chick per breeding pair every two years.
An albatross chick. At its current size the albatross cannot stand on its legs
An adult Royal albatross. It has a wingspan of about 3 meters
We were super lucky to actually see an adult albatross come in from the water! There was basically no wind that day, and the albatross rely on the wind to help carry them in so that they can feed their chicks. After the albatross center we headed to the private beach that Elm Wildlife conducts its tours on. On the way we passed a pair of shell-ducks, some pukeko, and a white-faced heron.
The pair of shell-ducks. They mate for life!
The pukeko, a flightless bird introduced from Australia
The white-faced heron
After driving up a very, VERY steep hill we parked at the top inbetween several pieces of farmland. We hiked down the hill to the first beach to see the New Zealand sea lions and the yellow-eyed penguins (hoiho in Maori). The New Zealand sea lion is probably the rarest sea lion in the world, with a population of only 150 individuals, and only about 30ish of those being females.
Some male sea lions sleeping together. Sea lions are nocturnal and will sleep all day and fish all night
This sea lion proudly basking in the sun
Sea lions can walk on all 4 of their flippers and are able to move up to 20 km per hour
When they wake up its time to play!
Along the same beach was an area where the yellow-eyed penguins, the rarest penguins, came in from the ocean to sleep for the night. Having seen the penguins before I didn't think this was going to be a big deal, but I didn't get the chance to actually see them come in from the ocean until this day! It was very cool to see, and I was actually the first one to spot the second penguin coming in. They kind of look like ducks when they're first coming in from a wave, but once the stand up its pretty apparent that they're penguins!
A yellow-eyed penguin toward the top of the hill
A penguin coming in off of the water
Nearly there!
Finally on to the beach!
After spending about an hour on the beach it was time to hike back up the humongous hill that the bus was parked on. We walked down the other side of the hill to the second beach on our tour to see the New Zealand fur seals. Luckily, this beach was a breeding area so it was full of mothers and their pups, so cute!! Here we got to see a mother nursing her pup, and even had a pup climb up onto higher rocks to watch us take pictures from the hide!
A mother nursing her pup
Some pups playing in the pool!
This pup climbed the rocks to see us
The evening ended with a relaxed bus ride back to Dunedin with a gorgeous sunset. Mom and I ventured from the Octagon to Fish Hook for dinner (a great sea food restaurant if you're in the area!) and finally made it home to crash in bed. A full day for sure!
The beautiful New Zealand sunset
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