We dropped Tina and Sharon off at the airport here in Dunedin and are already missing them!!! We’ve had a great ten days with them in New Zealand…..since the last posting, we continued our drive up the Southern Scenic Route on the South Island. Our accommodations have been really great along the way….after Waikava Cove, we spent the night in Pounawea, another tranquil and picturesque town on the southeast coast. Where we stayed was a small eco friendly hotel with just about 8 rooms or so that was just built in 2009. It was run by a very nice couple who take excellent care of it. Our rooms seemed brand new and the beds were really comfy!
The next day, we made it up to our last destination together, the Otago Peninsula. It’s a spit of land that shoots just off of the city of Dunedin, which is where I’m writing this from now. We rented two cottages that were next door to each other, about halfway up the peninsula. The peninsula itself is a spectacular piece of land surrounded by the ocean on one side and Otago Harbor on the other, and is home to an abundant variety of wildlife. Probably the two things it is best known for are the royal albatross colony and the yellow-eyed penguin colony. We visited both places yesterday and were really impressed with both. The royal albatross colony is the only mainland breeding colony of albatrosses in the world, with the rest breeding on more remote islands in the South Pacific. At the visitor’s center, you get a really informative introduction about the albatrosses, and then the tour guide walked us up to the glass enclosed observatory build into the side of the hill overlooking the ocean. At this time of year, the albatross chicks had already hatched and were about a month old or so. We didn’t get any good views of the adults flying, which would have been really cool since their wingspan is about 6-7 feet across! There were several fat, white fluffy chicks in nests which were pretty darn big!
In the afternoon, we visited Penguin Place, which despite the somewhat corny name, is a really well run conservation project. The yellow-eyed penguins are the rarest in the world which only live here and on a few islands off the coast of New Zealand. Apparently, they were very plentiful in New Zealand before Europeans arrived, but when they did, they brought with them rats, cats and other predators which they’d never had to deal with before. At any rate, this really has decimated their population so they’re doing their best to protect the penguins. While all other types of penguins are very sociable, these guys are quite solitary, and don’t hang out in groups.. Instead, they live in pairs, making nests in the hills just up from the beach. To see them, we were accompanied by our guide through some cleverly designed trenches dug through the hills near the beach where you looked out through hides to view the penguins. We saw several adult penguins as well as chicks as we walked through the trenches, and later we went down some trails near the beach where a number of New Zealand fur seals were hanging out. Talk about a great day for wildlife viewing!!
Yesterday, we drove out to the Otago Peninsula again and did a couple of great walks - or “tramps” as the Kiwis call them - around a couple of different beaches. At one of them called Sandfly Beach, we had to walk down some really steep sand dunes where our feet sunk pretty deep into the sand (yes, we had a lot to empty out of our shoes when we got back!) but it was so worth it when we got the end of the beach and there were about 5 or 6 huge sea lions sleeping on the beach. It was really awesome to be so close to them and get some great pictures.
Today we walked around Dunedin and walked up the steepest street in the world, Baldwin Street. Pretty cool!! The sidewalk up is actually a collection of steps which are much easier to traverse when going up such a steep angle. The street goes straight up a hill and offered amazing views of the city. We could have gotten a certificate saying we completed the climb, but we opted for our own pictures instead.
On a different note, I have to say that New Zealanders have got to be some of the friendliest people in the world. Everyone we’ve met has been happy to chat with us and always willing to help out with directions or suggestions on things to do. In many ways, it’s like meeting up with your long lost cousins - you speak the same language, but they’re just a little bit different!
The other interesting thing I’ve noticed since being here - not sure if this is because we’re in the southern hemisphere or what - is that in the late afternoon, it often feels and looks to me like mid-morning. Kind of disconcerting, as you can imagine!!!
Tomorrow, we’ll drive up to Christchurch, where we’ll drop off the rental car and pick up our campervan. Woo Hoo!!! That should be lots of fun......stayed tuned........
The next day, we made it up to our last destination together, the Otago Peninsula. It’s a spit of land that shoots just off of the city of Dunedin, which is where I’m writing this from now. We rented two cottages that were next door to each other, about halfway up the peninsula. The peninsula itself is a spectacular piece of land surrounded by the ocean on one side and Otago Harbor on the other, and is home to an abundant variety of wildlife. Probably the two things it is best known for are the royal albatross colony and the yellow-eyed penguin colony. We visited both places yesterday and were really impressed with both. The royal albatross colony is the only mainland breeding colony of albatrosses in the world, with the rest breeding on more remote islands in the South Pacific. At the visitor’s center, you get a really informative introduction about the albatrosses, and then the tour guide walked us up to the glass enclosed observatory build into the side of the hill overlooking the ocean. At this time of year, the albatross chicks had already hatched and were about a month old or so. We didn’t get any good views of the adults flying, which would have been really cool since their wingspan is about 6-7 feet across! There were several fat, white fluffy chicks in nests which were pretty darn big!
In the afternoon, we visited Penguin Place, which despite the somewhat corny name, is a really well run conservation project. The yellow-eyed penguins are the rarest in the world which only live here and on a few islands off the coast of New Zealand. Apparently, they were very plentiful in New Zealand before Europeans arrived, but when they did, they brought with them rats, cats and other predators which they’d never had to deal with before. At any rate, this really has decimated their population so they’re doing their best to protect the penguins. While all other types of penguins are very sociable, these guys are quite solitary, and don’t hang out in groups.. Instead, they live in pairs, making nests in the hills just up from the beach. To see them, we were accompanied by our guide through some cleverly designed trenches dug through the hills near the beach where you looked out through hides to view the penguins. We saw several adult penguins as well as chicks as we walked through the trenches, and later we went down some trails near the beach where a number of New Zealand fur seals were hanging out. Talk about a great day for wildlife viewing!!
Yesterday, we drove out to the Otago Peninsula again and did a couple of great walks - or “tramps” as the Kiwis call them - around a couple of different beaches. At one of them called Sandfly Beach, we had to walk down some really steep sand dunes where our feet sunk pretty deep into the sand (yes, we had a lot to empty out of our shoes when we got back!) but it was so worth it when we got the end of the beach and there were about 5 or 6 huge sea lions sleeping on the beach. It was really awesome to be so close to them and get some great pictures.
Today we walked around Dunedin and walked up the steepest street in the world, Baldwin Street. Pretty cool!! The sidewalk up is actually a collection of steps which are much easier to traverse when going up such a steep angle. The street goes straight up a hill and offered amazing views of the city. We could have gotten a certificate saying we completed the climb, but we opted for our own pictures instead.
On a different note, I have to say that New Zealanders have got to be some of the friendliest people in the world. Everyone we’ve met has been happy to chat with us and always willing to help out with directions or suggestions on things to do. In many ways, it’s like meeting up with your long lost cousins - you speak the same language, but they’re just a little bit different!
The other interesting thing I’ve noticed since being here - not sure if this is because we’re in the southern hemisphere or what - is that in the late afternoon, it often feels and looks to me like mid-morning. Kind of disconcerting, as you can imagine!!!
Tomorrow, we’ll drive up to Christchurch, where we’ll drop off the rental car and pick up our campervan. Woo Hoo!!! That should be lots of fun......stayed tuned........
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