Karitane Boat Trip

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Hi all,
Today one of my Arcadia friends and I took an eco-tour to Karitane, which is north of Dunedin. The trip was organized by the University of Otago, and there were about 15 international students who signed up. I haven’t met many non-American international students so far, but we were in the minority this time- there were mainly students from Germany, Sweden, and Hong Kong. We took off by boat from the Otago Harbor and then sailed to Karitane. We got lucky because the weather this week has been gorgeous, sunny and summery.

On the way we saw a lot of beautiful scenery (as is the norm in this country!) and also got up close and personal with seals, albatrosses, and other birds. There were also some opportunities to try fishing (someone caught a barracuda) and our driver said we could have gone in the water to swim or snorkel but the water wasn’t very clear when we got to the shallow areas by the beach, and the water temperature was a bit cold.

When we got to Karitane, which is a little town on the seaside, we docked the boat and we had some time to explore a protected site that provided some great views. There was a little walking track that started at the beach and continued in a loop around the coast. The area is protected by the Department of Conservation (DOC) because it is a former Maori pa (fortification) site. There were small signs with old Maori legends about the area, and a large carved arch over the entrance/exit to the walk. By the way, Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand, in case you didn’t know.

After we got back on the boat and headed back towards the harbor, we saw a lot more birds in the water and also two types of dolphins! First we saw Dusky Dolphins and then we saw Hectors Dolphins, which are endangered and rare. Our driver located them by looking to see where clusters of birds were diving. The dolphins swam up under the front of the boat and jumped a lot for us. I got a little woozy on the way back and other people were feeling ill, but we didn’t have any serious cases of seasickness.

We leave for our semester break on Thursday and will be doing a mini tour of the South Island. We’re going to be visiting Queenstown (again), Fox Glacier, Wanaka, and Christchurch. When I return from break it will already be nearly the end of April! I can’t believe we’re almost halfway done. Because of break, the next time I write I will have plenty of new fun things to report in probably a very long entry.

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Photos

Seal
This was my favorite picture of the ones I took. Most of my seal pictures don't turn out very well because they blend into the rocks!