Wildlife in Dunedin
Saturday 2004-04-03
Last night I realized that I had to stay a couple of days in Dunedin. I asked my B&B hosts if I could keep the room for another night. Unfortunately they were booked full and I had to find another place for this evening. Fortunately there are a couple of other B&Bs down the street and I booked a room with an awesome view of the harbor and the city.

One of the wonderful things about New Zealand is how tourist friendly it is. Almost every city and town no matter how small has an 'information' center. They are designated with a script letter 'i' on the road signs. The information centers have free maps, toilets, brochures, and people who will answer your questions. In addition they can book tours and accomodations. This morning I used the information center in Dunedin to book a wildlife tour on the peninsula, book my lodging for the following two nights in Te Anau and book a bus and boat cruise on Milford Sound. All done in about 20 minutes. Very cool!

The Otago Peninsula, just a short drive from downtown Dunedin is home to colonies of Royal albatross, rare yellow-eyed penguins and fur seals. The tour lasted about 6 hours. We drove out to the peninsula and observed the albatross chicks from a discrete observation booth. They are very careful not to disturb the chicks. Then we drove to a really remote location on the peninsula and hiked down to an isolated beach. Once there we were able to get very close to the fur seals. We spent quite a long time just watching them. Finally as darkness was approaching we went to a wooden observation booth on the beach and were able to watch the yellow-eyed penguins return from the ocean, walk up the sand and into the grass for the evening. Really, really amazing. Oh, and the sunset was spectacular too.

I got back to my B&B about 8 pm and immediately went for a walk to the center of town. I was on a mission - find dinner! And I succeeded - I found a fantastic Indian Restaurant called 'Indian Summer'. After a wonderful meal and a nice conversation with my waiter about flying airplanes I continued my exploration of the downtown area. I walked for about 30 minutes and ended up in an internet cafe. I did a lot of email and updated my web site. Then returned to the B&B. Another great day!