Dunedin

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Up early to catch the Naked Bus (don't worry - it's just a name) to Dunedin. It was about a 6 hour trip, including a 30 min break in Oamaru. Time enough to grab a quick lunch, but sadly not enough time to return to the Whitestone Cheese Factory.

We found our way to our hostel, Central Backpackers. The location was great, right near The Octagon, so lots of good cafes and restaurants. Dunedin is the Gaelic word for Edinburgh, and Dunedin was supposed to be a replica of that city. It sounds like there are at least some similarities, but Dunedin is MUCH more hilly!

In the evening, we wandered over to the Speight's Brewery for a tour. This is an excellent brewery tour! You learn about the history of beer and brewing from "day dot", as our tour guide put it. You also learn about the brewery itself, the Speight family, how the coopers made the barrels, etc. Then, at the end of the tour, you get to do a tasting. Now, this isn't your typical American tasting where they give you 4-5 shot glasses-worth of beer. Oh no - they give you a schooner (glass) and turn you loose on 6 taps for about an hour. Amazing!

The next morning, we walked over to the Otago Museum. It was a nice little museum, and they had a neat display celebrating 150 years of the Otago Daily Times newspaper. Afterwards, we walked down to the Cadbury Factory to take a peek in the store. Usually, they won't let you in to the shop unless you've paid for a tour, but there was a nice lady at the desk who let us in anyway. Marshall and I each bought a bar of chocolate (sorry, we already ate them!), and I also picked up a bag of Jelly Babies (like gummy bears).

Back to the hostel to get ready for our big adventure with Elm Wildlife Tours. This was a really fantastic outing, worth every penny. Our guides, Sean and Donna, picked us up at our hostel, picked up a few other folks around town, and we were on our way out to the Otago Peninsula. Along the way, they pointed out species of birds (gulls, oystercatchers, black swans, paradise shelducks, white-faced herons) and told us about Dunedin and the peninsula. Our first official stop was the Royal Albatross Center. We spent about 30 minutes watching albatross, gulls, petrels, and shags soaring all around us. Next, we were off to an intertidal bay to look for more birds. We saw a family of pukeko (our friends from the Picton campground), including chicks!

Our final stop was on a cliff between two farms. Elm Wildlife has permission to use this land, and to perform some habitat restoration down near the beach. First, we walked over to the fur seal rookery. I never get tired of seeing them! It's not quite pupping season yet, so all of the little guys we've been seeing are actually 1-year-old juvies. Most of them were sleeping, but a few were climbing on the rocks or swimming around in little pools. We also saw a sub-adult male causing some trouble with the nearby territorial males - it reminded me a lot of Stellers!

Next, we walked down to the beach to look for penguins. Right away, we saw a yellow-eyed penguin hanging out, and several little blue penguins in their burrows. There was also a pair of young, male Hooker's sea lions sleeping right at the end of the trail! After a few minutes, we saw our first yellow eyed penguin return from its day at sea.

As we made our way down the beach, another male sea lion came up on the beach. We watched him roll around in the surf, then roll around in the sand. Further on, we stopped at a few blinds to observe more penguin burrows. In one area, they've set up cameras so you can see what's going on inside - two of them had brand new (as in, hatched that day) chicks!

The next morning, we finished up some last-minute shopping and walked back to the bus station. Back to Christchurch by 8.

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Photos

Fur seal rookery
Sleepy juvies.

Penguin!
Yellow-eyed penguin returns from sea.

Yellow-eyed penguin
Bachelor male.

Comments

[Molly]

Speights!!
Glad you had so much fun in Dunedin. Plus it looks like you got to see every single critter you were hoping for. Yay!!!