Day 14: Dunedin & The Otago Peninsula
Lindsay will do almost anything for a good photo. Including dragging Igor out of bed at 6:30AM, making him drive 16km to Nugget Point, and then after breakfast & a walk at Roaring Bay, making him go back to Nugget Point a third time because the light was better. See below for the results – was I right, or was I right?
7AM view of Nugget Point- looks good, but it got even better!
Returning at 9AM – we are the only car again, but the view is totally worth it!
A crystal-clear view of the Nuggets!
We made a short stop in Dunedin for a quick walk around the Octagon, and to take pictures of the railway station (where I think we saw local late night show Jono and Ben filming their Dunedin episode of #cooltownbro).
The Dunedin Railway Station & First Presbyterian Church
After lunch, we drove out to the Otago Peninsula to check out the wildlife. Our first stop was Sandfly Beach – which surprisingly is not named after the bugs – it’s because the sand dune to get down to the beach is so steep, sand will be flying when you try to climb back up again. But it was totally worth it was there were sea lions and seals napping all along the beach!
Descending down the dune to Sandfly Beach
Igor imitating a sleeping sea lion!
The sea lions were on the sand, and the seals were napping in the rocks
YAWN. This sea lion is TIRED.
Waving at the locals, as I stroll down the beach
As it got close to sunset, we headed out to the tip of the peninsula to Penguin Place where we had book a tour to see the very rare Yellow-eyed Penguins. During the intro, we learned from our tour guide that these penguins are declining very rapidly – 2 years ago the world population was 5,000, now it is down to 3,000 – mostly due to habitat loss. Apparently this is the only anti-social penguin – in that nesting female can’t be within eye-sight of another penguin. Since New Zealanders cleared so much of their coastal forests for farming, this has contributed to the penguins’ declining numbers. But at Penguin Place, they have a rehabilitation center for injured birds, and they have built camouflage hides so visitors can get close to the beach with scaring the birds.
A few temporary residents at the Penguin Rehab Center. All will be released into the wild once they are healthy.
Private beach at Penguin Place, where two Yellow-eyed Penguins are coming up to nest for the night
So once we got into the hides, we learned the hard way to NEVER forget to bring a back-up camera battery, as our camera died just as we saw the penguins coming out of the water! Luckily Igor had his phone on him, which has a very good camera.
Igor was at the point of writing off the tour as a waste of money ($52pp) when the penguins starting walking over the roof of the hide, trying to get to their nest on the other hide. The penguins were LITERALLY on top of us! While they couldn’t see us, they could hear us! It was so cute – they kept trying to see under the bridge to figure out what the noise was – and Igor got it all on his phone!
That penguin is standing on top of a tunnel, leading to a camouflage viewing hide – with a group of tourists underneath him!
Two very curious penguins!
Awesome. Day.