Penguins & Albatrosses

Drive this morning to the Moeraki Boulders, random pefectly spherical rocks on the beach at Moeraki.....something to do with hot mud and rocks millions of years ago.....pretty incredible though.

On to Dunedin and visit the tourist information office which is immensely helpful and books two tours for us plus a caravan park for tonight so we don't have to worry about arriving late and it being full.

We drive (well By does) out on the Otago peninsula and have lunch at a picnic spot on the way - another glorious day weather wise, turquoise sea etc. At 3pm we do the Royal Albatross Tour at the end of the peninsula - the only mainland site of albatrosses in the world. We see 5 birds sat on nests with young and one juvenile who eventually finds enough wind to spread his 3 metre wide wings and soar off the cliff - breathtaking. They spend 4 years at sea flying around the southern oceans before returning here to breed, something they only attempt every two years due to the large effort required to raise a chick which weighs 12 kilos !!!

After our tour we drive the 4km to Penguin Place for a tour of the Yellow Eyed Penguin colony - there are only 4,000 left in the world and they are the 3rd largest penguin in the world - imagine knee height. We see 5 baby penguins - well they are almost adult size but in various phases of fledging (moulting) and thus waiting for parents to return from sea with dinner. We get really quite close. We also see a blue penguin asleep in it's nest and an adult yellow eyed which is beautiful. Then we view the newly arrived (in the last 2 years) New Zealand Seal colony before heading to our caravan site. A long and eventful day so we stay in the van and cook as it is 8pm.