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Published: August 9th 2007
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Allan Beach, Otago Peninsular
Stunning, even in sea fog, drizzle and gale force winds! McFarmers Backpackers Jason had made it quite clear at the beginning of this trip that he wanted to go to the Otago Peninsula to see the New Zealand Fur Seals, Sea Lions and Penguins. So we set off on our 5hr trip from Te Anau (blog:
Te Anau / Fiordland National Park / Milford Sound), passing through Invercargil to stop for lunch (Invercargil didn't look very exciting). After driving most of the way in bright sun, we saw the dark, low cloud on the horizon. Jason joked, "I bet that's where we're going!". As we drove through the outskirts of Dunedin and climbed Highcliff Road along the crest of the Peninsular we disappeared into fog and high winds. The sea fret hung over the Peninsular, making the narrow and twisty road an exciting journey as it wound its way through. At times we could barely see a few metres in front of us. It reminded me of being on the North Yorkshire Moors in the fog! We eventually made it to our accommodation - McFarmers Backpackers. This place was great, based on a farm as it was. It only had three rooms with shared facilities. It had a roaring log stove and a certain rustic charm. We met an
English couple, Larry and Lara and ended up exchanging stories on Oz and NZ, as well as finding out Larry was a potential rock star in the making, with an album due out soon.
Dunedin...and that Fine The next day, before setting off on safari for penguins, seals and seal lions, we had to call in on Dunedin to do some laundry, as we were getting desperately short of clothes. While waiting for the washing machine to do its thing, we went to find the steepest street in the world - yes here in NZ, not in San Franciso as I would have expected. After taking a wrong turn, Jason swung the car round fast to get back on track (as we were on a sharp bend at the edge of 100kph limit, reducing to a 50kph limit). Out of nowhere a policeman appeared at speed in an un-marked car and pulled us over to give us a nice speeding fine - just what we wanted to spend our money on! Now, we had already been warned that the Police in NZ are pretty hot when it comes to speeding, so Jason had been meticulously sticking to the speed
Yellow-Eyed Penguin
A chance encounter on Allan Beach limits. However, a bit annoyed that we had just taken the wrong turn, he wasn't concentrating and went 23kph over the 50kph speed limit we'd just entered. Now we have a $175 fine - great!
Anyway, Baldwin St is indeed extremely steep. We parked at the bottom to take in the view and watched a car approaching at speed shoot up the street (above the speed limit, I might add!). We decided to make the pilgramage up there too, Jason revved the engine and up we went. It was like been in a rocket, we were as vertical as we possibly could be in a car. It was fun going down too. The road is much steeper even than it first appeared from the foot of it.
Otago Wildlife After our eventful morning, we went seal hunting (but with a camera, not clubs). The guide book told us to try Allan beach, as there are often seals there. Yet another stunning beach - New Zealand surely has the best untouched beaches in the world. When we arrived, the beach looked deserted, so we decided to head for the rocks at one end. It didn't look hopeful, but then
we spotted one on the rocks, he was almost the same colour as the rocks, so he was well camoflaged. Jason got as close as he dared without wanting to disturb it, to take photos. While he was doing this, I was off looking for more. Then I found one just lying on the beach, he looked like a rock from afar. We manged to get really close to him, he was looking very docile and content. We couldn't see anymore but just as we were about to leave, I spotted a penguin. We ducked behind a rock and took loads of photos of this rare yellow eyed penguin, it was amazing. We were very lucky to see one without going on an organised tour.
It's worth saying that although New Zealand isn't necessarily famed for it's incredible beaches, incredible they are. Despite the sea fret and the grey, drizzly weather, the beaches along Otago Peninsular were picture postcard perfect - and empty!
Content with our lot, we then headed up to Pilot Beach at the head of the Peninsular, where the world's only mainland Albatross centre is based. We were going to go in, but the weather
was so poor they advised us not to bother paying the admission fee as we wouldn't see much on a day like this. As we headed back out to the car, Jason noticed on the beach below there were some Sea Lions. We turned the camera on quick and ran down. We watched three of them play fighting for sometime, before they dived into the water to continue their hijinks. We then saw more New Zealand Fur Seals than we could count.
We returned to the same beach at dusk for the return of the Blue Penguins, who swim out to sea during the day for food and return as it gets dark. As it got darker, we noticed a Sea Lion slumber up to the grass not far from where we were gathered. It then hide itself in the grass. It wasn't daft, it knew dinner was coming! Then, just as we were about to turn blue in the cold wind ourselves, we saw a ripple in the water approach the beach and then this tiny penguin emerged. It had a little look around, a little walk up the beach, then turned and faced the sea and waited.
McFarmer's Backpackers
Sally at work in the kitchen, preparing a meal for the weary driver! This was
the advance party. Eventually, the next one arrived and slowly the two of them started the walk up the beach to the grassland where their nests lie. I'm not sure if the waiting Sea Lion had fallen asleep, or the Penguins gave him the slip, but certainly there was no Blue Penguin meal for the Sea Lion tonight. By this stage, I was freezing and it was getting too dark to see anything so returned to the car, leaving Jason to see if the rest of the colony return. We'll never know if they did return because he returned sooner than they did! However, watching the first one emerge out of the water in the half-light was quite magical. (no photos allowed though, I'm afraid)
We returned to McFarmers to get the fire roaring to find the owner had already done it for us. We had the place to ourselves that night as no one else was staying.
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