Day 29: The Otago Peninsula

Today, we are leaving the Catlin’s already, but not after we took another quick peek at the dolphins at Porpoise Bay.
They are not in today, but will probably be around. However, we didn’t see them. So we are off to Dunedin.

It is only a short drive up there, at about 3 hours at a leisurely speed. Along the way, we visited the magnificent Nugget Point. This is a rocky outcrop on the coast, where one of the lighthouses of NZ is located.
There is also a lot of marine wildlife over there, and with today being one of the best days we have had in a long time weather wise, it would be foolish to not go there.

The drive to Nugget Point is quite interesting, as there is about a 15km unsealed narrow winding road to the car park. Because of the views and the wildlife, this actually is a rather popular spot to go to for tourists, so anything and everything can be found driving on that road. Cars, campervans, caravans and even trailers with boats go there, also because there a quite a few holiday homes dotted along the road for the locals to enjoy a day at the beach.

Quickly moving on, we arrived at Dunedin and skipped the town completely and drove straight away to the Otago Peninsula. This peninsula is lusciously green and has a lot of hills. It is really narrow and quite long at around 20km. It’s maximum width is about 9km. We are staying in a B&B near Portobello, one of 7 townships along the coast of the peninsula.
There is a lot of stuff to do here ranging from walks to tours to see the native resident Albatrosses, Blue Penguins, Yellow-eyed Penguins, Shags, NZ Fur Seals, Sea Lions, and much more.

We decided to take it easy here, and visited the Albatross Colony this afternoon. The colony itself is only accessible with a guide, but we chose to look at the birds flying in from sea from the parking lot, where you can get the best views on them. They come swooping in and are preparing to land on their nests nearby. As the viewing point is quite high up, and the bird come flying in really low, they are using the winds bouncing off the cliff to climb up in the air and are doing so just alongside the viewing platform. This gives us a facntastic view of the birds, as they pass by literally only metres from you. Wow. They are big!
The Royal Southern Albatross nests on this peninsula, which is the biggest species of albatross in the world.
The birds are fully protected, which is why the nesting sites are only accessible via a tour.

Tonight, after dark, we went on a tour from the Albatross Colony down to the other side of the cape, to see the little Blue Penguins come ashore to feed their offspring. These penguins are so small. They choose to land on the beach only after the dark, as their predators then have less chance of catching them. They come in rafts ranging in size from 5 to 30 birds and are scrambling to the nest. Each breeding pair has up to 2 chicks, and the parents take turns in spending the day fishing or guarding the chicks.
These penguins are so tiny, and actually really blue. You would imagine a different hue of blue, but the colour is very bright. Unfortunately though the Penguin Tour is really busy, and the crowd was a little bit too big for its own good, so it seems like the tour is suffering a bit from its own popularity. That is a shame. Maybe they should limit the number of people who can attend?

This has been the best day in weeks! Sunshine all day long, no rain and views of the magnificent beauty if the land everywhere. Wow!