Advertisement
Published: November 10th 2008
Yesterday we made the long drive from Queenstown to Dunedin. It was about 3.5 hours drive. We went to Penguin Place. It just so happens that the farmer who owns the land decided to turn it into a reserve for the penguins that called his backyard their home. They come and go on the beach in his backyard. He built some little homes for them and they just chill out there. It was very cool. Depending on what time of the year you go, there are different things happening. We went right at the time of breeding and egg laying. Last week one of the eggs hatched and we were able to see a rare moment when the penguin was feeding her baby. The penguins that are seen on the reserve are the rarest kind in the world.. the Yellow Eyed Penguins.
We decided to drive out to the Albatross center at the end of the Otago Peninsula. Wow.. those birds are so big! Their wingspan is about 3-4 feet long. They were just soaring above our heads.. like gliders.
On our way to the Albatross center, we passed by a sign that read "Blue Penguin viewing area". Curious,
we decided to check it out. It turns out that the beach there is where the Blue Penguins come in to nest at the end of the day! It was so cool. They weren't due to come back until the sun sets, so we waited around for them. The sun doesn't set here until about 9:00pm so it was a long cold wait. But it was really worth it! The little blue penguins are about 10-12 inches tall. They are so cute! They come in all together and huddle next to the rocks. They wait until they all arrive on the beach and they make a trek up the cliff to their nesting site. The park ranger warned us not to hit any penguins on our way out.. since some of them have been hit on the road. They were really really cute and it was such a treat to see them in their natural habitats. There was no flash photography allowed so we didn't get many good pictures.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 10; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0459s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Yellow Eyed Penguin
Dr Jon
Jon Pearce
from prof
Glad to see you're still using travelblog. Glader still that you have travel to blog. But we need pictures!