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Published: January 5th 2009
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To Dunedin
Strange cloud formations that make me think of a Hollywood epic about natural disasters or alien invaders. Pronounced Doo-NEE-dun, the word means Edinburgh of the South. It was settled by Scots in the mid-1800s and there's a big Scottish Presbyterian Church here along with a statue of Robert Burns. Apparently the town is even laid out to match Edinburgh, which locals call the Dunedin of the North. This kind of humour is one of the characteristics of being Kiwi. One of the Magic Bus drivers mentioned that New Zealand actually consists of three islands: one to the north, another to the south and third to the west that most people call Australia.
I caught a guided tour bus out to the Otago Peninsula to see fur seals, sea lions, yellow-eyed penguins and royal albatross. The first were just lying on the rocks, a couple of big males with a harem around them and a few pups suckling or sleeping. A couple of teenagers splashed in the water nearby.
We climbed up through a pasture among slightly nervous sheep that kept their distance over a headland to a broad, sandy beach. Six or seven sea lions lay in the sand with two adolescent lions near the water. One of them came over to investigate us. Our guide
had studied them at university and he explained they're playful at this age, not really aggressive. The mount mock challenges as a way to prepare for real challenges to other bulls later in life.
He flippered over to us fairly quickly and our guide told us to stay behind as he faced down the animal. They stood flipper to toe facing each other and because the guide didn't back down the sea lion didn't press in. The guide turned and walked away and the sea lion pursued a few moments later. The guide turned, squatted down and presented his backpack to the lion, who stopped, sniffed and waited. This happened several times before the sea lion lost interest. We continued on to see the bulls, staying a little further away from them. They craned their necks to watch us walk past but as long as we didn't approach they didn't see a threat so didn't seem to care, lying there in the dry, warm sand.
But out teenage friend flippered over to another teenage male nearby, one a little older and bigger. We stepped up off the beach onto higher, grassy ground and watched as they wrestled a
To Dunedin
Dry, treeless landscape on the way to Dunedin. bit. Not a serious fight; just practising.
The guide led us to a nearby wooden viewing shack to watch for yellow-eyed penguins. Sea lions will eat them so they're terrified of the big beasts. It was the end of the day and we hoped to see some coming back to their nests after a day of fishing to change place with their partners. They come up out of the surf, cross the beach and climb a steep hill to their nests which are usually under logs or rocks or fallen trees.
But the sea lions' presence meant penguins weren't coming ashore near us. We saw one waddling across the beach in the distance. Closer to us one or two were already going up the hill among the sheep that grazed nearby. One was standing there, wings akimbo like a gunfighter ready to draw, facing to lambs in a Mexican standoff of the inoffensive vs. the harmless. You could say the penguin won when the lambs walked away but the truth is that this only appeared to be a standoff. The penguin has to work hard to climb the hill and was holding his wings out to cool down
Dunedin
This is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's steepest street. Walking up, I had to really lean into it. while the lambs were likely just curious. Apparently they live together in mutual disinterest.
Then a couple of the big sea lions got worked up by our persistent teenager. One bull hustled a good 100 metres across the beach directly at another and they started a real fight that lasted a couple of minutes until one of the two disappeared into tee water and the winner stood on his victory patch of beach.
We climbed the hill back to the tour bus and drive for a while to a rocky headland. Fortunately the wind had picked up so Royal albatross were soaring overhead, demonstrating aerobatics to impress potential mates. These birds usually mate for life, although our guide told us of one female who'd outlived her first mate, taken up with a second that was much younger (a toy boy... or toy bird, I suppose) abandoned him for a third, then returned to the toy boy to finish her days. A real cougar of an albatross.
In a stiff breeze and with a setting sun we watched six of these huge birds soar on the updrafts, rising and falling and making great swooping circles, hardly flapping their
Dunedin
Typical house along the world's steepest street. wings. They're the biggest of the albatross family with wingspans reaching 3.3 or 3.4 metres and capable of flying 700 km in a day, given the right winds.
We returned to Dunedin and on my way to the hostel I passed a health store. In the window they had on display vegan cat food. I can understand making nutritional choices for yourself based on certain principles about life, but imposing this on your cat...an animal that's essentially a carnivore? Sounds...well, selfish. I bet a cat that has to eat this all the time would love to get its teeth into one of those albatrosses.
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pamela johnstone
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dunedin
I ENJOYED YOUR information re dunedin AND PHOTOS AND WILL DEFINITELY GO TO THE OTAGO PENINSULA THANKS!