#27 - The Otago Peninsula

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We are so lucky, we have had yet another fabulously sunny warm day. Everyone keeps telling us that it won’t last, but hey! We’ll make hay while the sun shines! It’s not just that its warmer with the sun shining, it’s also that everything looks so much prettier with bright blue skies, blue seas and sunny hills!

And what better place for us to enjoy the wonderful weather is the spectacularly beautiful Otago Peninsula. I suppose it reminded me of Scottish Lochs, and this wasn’t a great surprise, because the southern part of the South Island was predominantly settled by Scots, to the point that their accent has a ‘rolled r’ which they say is from the Scottish accent. There is a very strong Scots heritage here, with lots of tartan and talk of Burns’ Night and poetry. They were even playing the poems by NZ’s greatest poet (the Tennyson of NZ) - the reader had the strongest Scottish accent you can imagine ... which I thought a little daft as the poet was actually from Northern Ireland!! In fairness, I have to say that the poems weren’t great, but he did write the words for the National Anthem.

I digress (again!) - back to the Otago Peninsula! We enjoyed just driving the winding road and admiring the views. We did go up to Larnach Castle, NZ’s only castle, but it was really expensive to get in, and we thought we’ve got older at home! It was built by a rich magnate who wanted to impress his French wife ... and she didn’t like it! What makes it a castle? They put castellations on the roof!

Eventually we wended our way to the tip of the Peninsula, Taiaroa Head, which was heavily fortified in the last war and is now known as an historic fort (no comment!). There are lots of tunnels and a really heavy gun that was obsolete as soon as it was installed (due to the fast rate of developments in armaments). It has never been fired in anger. And long may that continue.

But what Taiaroa Head is most famous for is the Royal Albatross Colony - the only Albatross nesting site on a mainland. I didn’t think that I’d be able to tell the difference between an albatross and a seagull (we all know the problem I had with recognising a penguin at 100m!). But they are really easy to pick out from the way they glide on the wind, dipping down towards the sea on wings that are up to 3m across. They spend most of their lives at sea, only coming on land every 2 years or so to mate - and the records show that some birds have been returning for the past 50 plus years! Amazing!

We stopped at a gallery on the way back (terrible pictures, but had a jolly good chat with the artist), and spent some time photographing the sea at low tide. Unfortunately we couldn’t find Concrete Critters that was on the map ... most disappointed!!

Still our evening was lovely - we managed to get on Skype and chat to Mum H, Judy & Dave and Danielle, which is the first opportunity we’ve had for a long time and it’s so nice to catch up.

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