Dunedin and Otago Peninsula (October 19-21)

Tuesday, October 19 is the start of our third week on the road. On our way out, we stopped at the Niagara Cafe where Mike enjoyed his last Porpoise Man breakfast and Susan tried the French Toast with Bananas. Without our usual internet for several days, we read the newspaper weather and learned rain and cold was expected all over the southern South Island. It was easy to agree that Stewart Island would be no fun in this kind of weather.

Busy Dunedin

Instead, we headed east in pouring rain which continued all the way across the Catlins to Dunedin. Our only stop was in Balclutha to get gas and add brake fluid. A wet Dunedin in the cold wasn't particularly appealing in spite of the Gothic architecture and rhodies in full bloom. We found a multi-level car park garage then walked to the iSite to make our our motel reservation on the Otago Peninsula and grab some area info. The Otago Museum was an easy walk and seemed like a good way to get out of the rain as well as pop into a few shops along the way. Moa skeletons were the best part of the museum, although the Mindpower exhibit in the children's section was pretty cool. The point was to relax and somehow your brainwaves, as monitored by a headband with three metal contact points, would cause a little ball in a tube to move away from you. When the ball reached your opponent's side, you won. Susan lost. So much for mind control.

It was a bit of an adjustment to come from driving in the slow paced coastal rural beauty of the Catlins to bustling Dunedin, which apparently had been much busier earlier in the day when the first cruise ship of the season docked.

Click here for larger images with captions.

We watched the behemoth ship work its way out of the harbor from Tiairoa Head in the early evening, as we looked for Royal Albatross to come sweeping up in the high winds on the other side of the rocky headlands. The RA Centre Observatory is closed this time of year because they are nesting, but we got a good look at them from the car park. The rain was only on and off now and the skies clearing, and we saw a vivid rainbow over the ocean. Just beautiful! Mike had left his windpants back in the room, and was chilled through and through from trying to photograph the large birds.

While Susan was watching from the car, she noticed Pilot's Beach just behind us. This was an area where the Little Blue Penguins could be seen at dusk heading to their nests near the shore. We went a few hundred feet to a pull off and decided to try to see them, even though the winds were brutally cold. Susan put on her windpants, GoreTex winter jacket and OR mittens (which were the very same style on display at the Edmund Hillary Alpine Center used by mountaineer Mark Inglis) and was barely warm enough while we waited for the penguins to arrive. According to the DOC sign, ETA was 8PM.

Another couple was already waiting and shortly two DOC volunteers arrived. The wind was relentless but at least it wasn't raining. It was almost totally dark when we gave up and headed back to the car hoping it would be warmer the next night, but we asked the DOC volunteers to wave if the penguins showed up...and when Susan looked back one more time, she saw 4 people wildly waving their hands at us. The penguins were arriving!! We walked back as quickly as possible, hoping our rapid movements wouldn't scare the little guys away. What we saw was wonderful - a little herd of about 20 Little Blue Penguins gathered together on the sand, heading towards their nesting areas in the rocks and shrubs. We could barely see them, especially once they got to the rocks where they waited until they felt safe before moving further inland. We observed two more "waves" of penguins for a total of about 60 birds. In Summer, there can be as many as 150 per night. It was so much fun to watch them. First you'd think you saw something, perhaps a gull but that didn't seem quite right. Then there'd be many little upright figures standing there, seeming to appear out of nowhere, and then they waddled inland together like little shadows.

They worked their way along, hopping up the rocks and some even came up, single file, via a little beach stairway built for humans. It was so dark they were hard to see clearly, but their little white fronts gave them away in the grasses after they climbed up the rocks. Apparently some nested quite close to the beach, but some nested in bushes and shrubs behind the roped off viewing area in which we stood. Susan backed away from them a little and sat down on a large boulder, following the lead of the DOC penguin volunteers. After just a minute or two, Susan noticed 2 of the little guys heading right toward her! But then they froze and sized her up for several minutes. She stayed as still as her excitement would allow, hoping she hadn't scared them. Soon enough they approached and walked right past her within touching distance! But of course Susan remained still, only turning her head to watch as they went by. They were SO CUTE! This experience was the highlight of the trip for Susan. Mike was 20 feet farther away, but grinning ear-to-ear as we got to observe this totally unique wildlife experience.

Otago Peninsula -- penguin country!

After a lazy morning, we headed out to see the sights of Otago Peninsula. We ended up taking three great wildlife tours, and all were great experiences with few or no other people along. First, we walked on to a Monarch cruise, a one hour trip out past Tiaroa Head in hopes of seeing more Northern Royal Albatross. We saw some flying and one in the nest, which was a great experience for a calm afternoon. We also saw our first Hutton's Shearwaters and Cape Petrels. Afterward, we visited the Northern Royal Albatross Centre -- well worth the stop with interesting displays on the birds and other sea life. 

Next we headed toward the Lanarch Castle, but then turned around on a whim to take another tour at the end of the peninsula with Natural Encounters. This outfit puts you on an AWD vehicle with 8 wheels and shows you some great viewpoints along the way to wildlife viewing, including more New Zealand Fur Seals. We saw YEPs in the nest, but no faces and they were fairly far off. The LBP nest viewing was great - we easily saw 2-3 of them nesting under rocky outcroppings from very close range in great light. The seal viewing was also interesting with bulls coming in early to stake out their territories. Next we headed back toward the Lanarch Castle, but once again were sidetracked and decided to give Penguin Place a chance. Susan wasn't sold on YAPVT so soon, but went along with Mike on the idea and was so glad she did. They maintain an extensive system of trenches and hides throughout the hillside from which a number of YEP nesting sites can be seen close up without bothering the penguins. The YEPs nest in little A-frame's provided by the Penguin Place folks to give the endangered critters a leg up in the penguin-unfriendly world.

New Zealand Fur Seal nursing

Mike also spotted a penguin on the beach heading out to sea, or so we thought at first. As it turned out, he was trying to get back to his nest, but a sea lion was snoozing very close to the entrance of the penguin's path to his nest. We observed him standing and turning about and seemingly unsure about about what to do. We watched tensely for a few minutes and it was quite dramatic knowing the danger the sea lion posed to this little guy. Finally he opted to scurry past the sleeping sea lion and we smiled and silently cheered him on as he climbed up the hillside to safety.

We also saw some wooden nesting boxes for Little Blue Penguins, but couldn't see much more than their backs. Near the end of our tour, a juvenile Yellow Eyed waddled up quite close to our hide, then walked parallel with us for a bit, giving us a great view.

Walking distance from our Portobello accommodation, we ended the day with a tasty late dinner at 1908, a very nice restaurant where we also sampled three good beers from Emerson, a boutique brewery in Dunedin.

Susan woke up in the middle of the night feeling travel burnout and thinking about heading back to Blenheim. In the morning we talked about the idea - was it just one of those late night angsty things? In the morning, Miked jumped on the idea at once and we were glad to be in travel sync. It meant we would have to make another trip south to see Stewart Island, but we'd figure it out.

On our way out, we wanted to visit the Lanarch Castle and some representative Gothic Architecture in Dunedin. The Castle and its gardens and views were all wonderful, even in the rain, which eased as later in the morning. We enjoyed a breakfast of ham quiche, scones and shortbread cookies served by women in long tartan skirts in the castle cafe. We warmed up, seated next to one of the three roaring fireplaces, then were off to Dunedin.

We peeked in at Dunedin's First Church then parked across at the famous Railway Station designed by George Troup who was hence known as "Gingerbread George." The station is used by the Taieri Gorge Railway and inside houses the New Zealand Museum of Sports and at least one art gallery.

Moeraki Boulders

By 2PM we were finally heading north. Plugging the destination "home" into our Garmin with the "Kiwi Karen" voice, we learned we would arrive at 2200. Hmm, the seed was planted. Probably too late to make it in one day, so we lingered at the Moeraki Boulders at high tide then considered taking another penguin tour at Oamaru. 

Instead we drove around gawking at Oamaru's old limestone buildings with Susan doing what Mike has dubbed "guerilla photography" out the window of the moving car. She may have discovered her art. Steampunk HQ was written in huge red letters on one building and we later learned Oamaru is the NZ home of the edgy art form. Eventually we got back on the road, stopping for a late dinner at the Jolly Potter's, a pub decorated with old school Temuka Pottery.

I guess we were just too lazy to find a place to stay, so we ended up driving all the way from Portobello to Blenheim in one day, although technically we arrived the next morning. It did feel good to be home away from home!