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Published: February 5th 2011
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The luxury today was a bit of a lay in! Our rep at the iSite had been very clever sorting out our trips, and booked us in the afternoon slots as, due to their being two massive cruise ships docked in town, they are all flooding out to the local attractions, so by choosing the 4pm tour the cruise ship passengers would all be finishing for the day and heading back. So, 4pm at the Albatross Colony, and then 5.30pm at Natures Wonders was the plan. We headed out mid morning as, on the peninsula, there was New Zealand’s only castle to visit too!
So, an amazing drive out along the coast to start with, before turning inland and climbing some pretty steep hills to get to the castle! I was a bit worried as the car had been smoking heavily going up hills, and Dunedin is just full of them. To get to our camp site from town we have to scale a massive hill and then go down the other side, so its not ideal for a car with a fear of hills or dodgy brakes! Thankfully the brakes are fine, and, other than smoking heavily, Julia doesn’t
seem to be suffering on the hills, but its never good to stop your car and smell and see smoke, so I’m a little cautious about her. First thing to note about today was the weather, very sunny but blowing a gale, definitely very strong gusts of wind, enough to almost knock you off your feet. The castle is open to the public as a separate entity to the gardens themselves, so we paid for both and wandered around outside for a short while before heading inside to check out the castle. No photos allowed inside the castle and, if truth be known, I think I’ve been to enough castles in my lifetime to have though it was OK, but not the best I’ve ever been to. However, the story of how it came to be restored was quite impressive, a couple just randomly buying the rundown castle and working to restore it to its former glory, very impressive. Had a good couple of hour there, including lunch, before we decided to catch the last 2 gardens we’d not seen, and we saw the most amazing storm roll into the valley, and it absolutely lashed it down for about 5
minutes. We were fortunate enough to be able to shelter under a viewing point, but, even though the rain only just skirted where we were, the islands opposite completely disappeared like it was foggy. 5 minutes later and the sun was shining and all was lovely again. From the castle, we drove the hill route down to the Albatross Colony, and arrived in time for our 4pm tour. What this involved was a quick 5 minute chat with a guide about the Albatross, before donning coats and being lead up the hill to the purpose built hide, where we were able to view 4 nesting Albatross, 3 sitting on eggs and one, we were assured, sitting on a chick. The wind was incredible up on the hill, it was quite literally blowing some of the smaller people in our party around, and it just howled through any gaps it could find in the hide itself. We were fortunate enough to see an Albatross coming in to land, so we did get to see one flying, which isn’t always the case. They also handed out little toy albatross which had been set up to weigh the same as the real bird
at various ages, so that was quite interesting, to see how much a 4 month old actually weighs. In what seemed like minutes our time was up and we were heading back down again to watch a 10 minute film about the life of the Albatross and, when that was done, it was time to head to the car and drive up the hill to Natures Wonders for our second tour. We arrived and, before I knew what was happening, the previous tour had arrived back and the chap running that one asked whether Helen would like to bottle feed the lamb, so she was off and about and feeding the animal like a pro, all the practice with Phil the goat obviously paid dividends. There were just 2 other people on our tour, and we were given even more impressive jackets than at the last place, these to keep dust, rain and mud off our clothes, and we set off in an 8 wheel jeep thing, which was most cool. Helen got to sit in the front. First stopping point was the top of a hill and the wind was rocking the vehicle about as we got out to
take some photos, and then we headed to our first stop, the seals on the beach. The way this place has been set up is that the wildlife lives on the beaches, and you view from just above the beach, nobody ever sets foot on the beach itself, for any reason, and so the seals are completely at ease with humans; apparently sometimes they bask on the actual path we stand on, but not today. However, it didn’t matter as they were so close and, with a small concrete hide also built in, we were able to get 5 or 6 feet away from a seal, and to watch the youngsters playing in the sea as the waves lapped over the rock was really impressive. We moved on, though, as there was the small matter of penguins to see. Two main types, yellow eyed and small blue, both of which are endangered species, and very rare. For this site, they had build a hide which basically runs all down one side of a cove, so you can walk the full length hidden from view of the penguins. Imagine a gorgeous sandy beach with nobody on it, about a 500m long,
and you’ve got the idea. The hide itself also heads downwards, at quite a steep angle but, before we’d even got to the bottom, penguins had been spotted in the bushes just beyond the sand. Then one was spotted coming in from the sea and waddling up the beach, another returned to shore before changing their mind and swimming back out again, and they are amazingly quick and agile in the water. The highlight, though, was the penguin who, conveniently, decided to jump up on a rock literally just below where we were viewing, and then spend the next 10 minute gently moving around and posing for the camera. More yellow eyed penguins came ashore but then, the absolute icing on the cake, our guide signaled for us to be quiet, and slid back a small wooden hatch and there, literally 3 feet in front, was a little blue penguin. I was quite astonished at just how blue it was! I managed to get a photo before being told no photos, and I’ve not played with any colour settings, that’s the colour he was! We were all spellbound, and a bit gutted when we were told we had to move
on as our time was up! A fun ride back to the centre in the car, past some world war 2 gun placements, and we were back and finished. The drive back, however, from the furthest point of the peninsula was amazing, we saw more Albatross swooping around, and some spoonbills feeding at low tide, before we finally got back to our tent and decided to rest for a bit before dinner. Anyway, 3 hours later, it was dark and too late for dinner so we went to bed still amazed at the sights we had seen. Amazing experience.
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mum
non-member comment
sounds like a billiant trip missing you both Mum