Thursday, October 31st
Dunedin, the oldest city in New Zealand, is the second largest city on the South Island with a population of about 400,000 people. Its largest industry is education, with the students of Otago University and Otago Polytechnic making up almost 20% of the population. The Victorian and Edwardian architecture here is regarded to be one of the best preserved in the Southern Hemisphere. The stories of Scottish pioneers and Chinese gold miners are fascinating.
We began our day with a cruise on the 22 km long Otago Harbour and circling the head of the Otago Peninsula to enjoy the fabulous scenery and unique wildlife. The weather was perfect and there were only 7 of us, including the crew, aboard the "Monarch".
It was a slow cruise as the skipper pointed out various points of interest along the shore and identified wildlife and their attributes. The green hills and gorse in yellow bloom was a replication of spring in Scotland.
We watched NZ sea lions sunning themselves, NZ fur seals trying to find a mate and we spotted shags (cormorants) nesting, spoonbills, oystercatchers and swans. The highlight of the cruise was seeing the Northern Royal Albatross nesting and soaring above our heads! These birds have a wingspan of 3 meters and can fly 100 km/hr. There are only about 20,000 remaining and they breed only on Islands in NZ territory. I was unable to get a decent shot of the albatross today - I was too busy watching them!
We disembarked the ship at Taiaroa Head and made our way to Penguin Place to view the blue penguins (aka fairy penguin) and yellow eyed penguins. Both species are protected in a conservation area on the peninsula and is fully funded by tourism. There are only 300 yellow eyed penguins remaining on the planet and this ambitious project seeks to preserve them on a private beach and land donated for the project by the landowners. This species is particularly private, so we viewed them from blinds and trenches dug by hand. The yellow-eyed penguins are nesting now and some were incubating eggs while their mates were out fishing today. It was a pretty wonderful experience for us!
We headed back to Dunedin by land. Tina and I had a late lunch and then caught a two hour city tour where we saw some of the fabulous architecture I have mentioned here, as well as some beautiful beaches and the steepest street in the world at 38 degrees. We visited Waverly, Portobello and noticed Musselbugh and hundreds of other Scottish places names. The last photo here is of Otago Boys School. It would be very easy to live here!!
Back at our hotel we enjoyed a relaxing dinner and early night.
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