NZ Land Logs 19, Year 2: South Island—Oamaru Bird Adventures
Date: Friday, March 9, 2007
Weather Today: Sunny with Temperature in the 60’s
Location: Oamaru, New Zealand
We awoke to a sunny day at The Penguin Place and got ready for another adventurous day. Although we got to see albatross soaring in the skies above the Royal Albatross Centre late yesterday, we returned this morning in hopes of seeing some of the babies in their nests and with the slightest bit of hope in seeing a parent who might have gotten a late start in going out to sea to feed today. The tour included an overview with a guide, a film about albatross, and then a hike up to the observatory. We were high on the bluff looking down at the nests of shags (much like cormorants) and overlooking the nests of four 6-week old baby albatross. At this age they are still white and fluffy. The nests were not close to the observation window, but with binoculars we could watch them as they slept, stretched, and flapped their wings. There were not adults around, but after a few minutes of observation, the huge wings of an albatross came into sight. The wing span of this bird is about eight feet, so even at a good distance they look very large. The birds that nest at the Centre are banded for identification, and our guide new that this guy was a 31 year-old daddy coming home to feed his young one. He landed, found his baby, and fed the little one for at least 20 minutes. He did this by regurgitating the food he had eaten and letting the baby stick its head in his mouth to eat. Sounds yucky to us, but it must be yummy for the baby albatross. They only get to eat every other day, so they had better not complain.
After our albatross experience, we started the hair-raising drive along the water’s edge back toward Dunedin. We only had to go halfway today and then we headed up the mountain to see Larnach Castle. This castle stands on the highest point on the Otago Peninsula and was built in 1871 by a man named William Larnach. The castle is a Gothic mansion that has been restored by the Barker family who reside in it today. I read in the paper that Mrs. Baker turned 65 on Sunday, March 4, so Alan and I feel a connection to her since we all have birthdays close together. Unfortunately, that didn’t get us an invitation into the castle, but we did tour the grounds and visited the various gardens–all beautiful. From the top of the Otago world, we slowly descended to Dunedin and drove into the center of town to check it out. This city has about 110,000 people so it was our first big city experience since Auckland. We really only had time to visit an internet cafe to check email and send yesterday’s log and then have lunch before moving on, but it was fun to see the city center if only for a short time.
Our drive north up the east coast from Dunedin to Moeraki, our next stop, took about an hour and a half. We were hoping to reach the coast at Moeraki at low tide in order to see the strange rocks that call this area home. The Te Kaihinaki (ancient boulders) are round rocks created millions of years ago around lime crystals. They looks like little moons scattered about the beach and the ones that had cracked open looked a lot like huge geodes. Helaine was delighted to take off her shoes and walk for the first time in the South Pacific Ocean. After our rock tour, we headed to Oamaru, our stop for the night. Lonely Planet says that Oamaru is a “slightly eccentric, wonderfully friendly town.” This was a prosperous town in the 1800’s but today it is a lazy little town with leftover architecture from another age. We stopped at 41 Tyne, our B & B for the night, and were very pleasantly surprised at the find. Just as described in Lonely Planet, this place is a great deal. At only $105 New Zealand for the night, we have our own little house with three bedrooms, a living room, an a very nice kitchen. All this comes with continental breakfast provided and fresh bread. Wow! What a deal.
Our purpose for stopping in this little town was to see the Little Blue penguins that come ashore every night here after feeding at sea. The “show” begins at dusk and goes until about 10 pm. We saw 40 to 50 Little Blues wash ashore and scramble up the rocky shore to their homes at the base of the cliff. We were not allowed to take any pictures, so I took detailed notes and will write those up as my “Little Blue” story. I’ll post this with a later log once I have time to write it.
Tomorrow we go to see Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park. Twenty-two of the twenty-seven mountains in New Zealand are in this park. We saw the peak of Mt. Cook from the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers area, but it will be thrilling to see the whole mountain–weather cooperating. We will end our day in a little town called Fairlie and have dinner there in the Old Library Cafe. It comes highly recommended from my sister Patsy and her husband Joe as well as a number of Kiwis we have met along the way. So tomorrow we leave the birds and ocean behind and enjoy a day of mountains.
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| 070309 Web Pics–Otago Peninsula to Dunedin to Oamaru |
