Dunedin

Sea-lions on the beach.
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Dunedin was founded by Scottish settlers  ( Dunedin means ' Edinburgh of the South '  ) and they  constructed buildings that give the city a British - or Scottish - feel.

But i'm not in Dunedin  for the Victorian architecture. I'm here for the wildlife.

The nearby Tiaroa Head gives a chance to see lots of wildlife I never dreamed i'd see.  A tour of the Royal Albatross Centre was fantastic. I'd seen a stuffed albatross very recently at the Wellington museum . I marvelled at it's massive wingspan,  never imagining i'd ever see a live one as they spend almost all their lives out at sea. I didn't know  that this little bit of NZ is home to the only mainland breeding colony in the world , giving the only chance i'd have  to see them up close.

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The viewing area overlooks the nesting sites.We were lucky to see chicks being fed as the adults only visit their offspring every few days. To see them in flight was awesome as they have a wingspan of 3 m ( 10 ' in old money ) . They glide surprisingly fast -  up to 160km an hour , it says in my notes. Makes it very hard to take a photo and when you do manage to get a blurry shot as they streak overhead , theres nothing to give a sense of scale. It could be a pic of a seagull!  Prince Charles visited a couple of years ago , and being royalty he was allowed to visit the nests  . Us lesser mortals viewed from behind tinted glass.

Out of focus albatross.
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We visited some private land where the wildlife seemed oblivious to us humans. The sea lions basking on the beach  completely ignored us , which meant we could get near enough for some decent pictures , but far enough away in case they decided they didn't want us there. They had a few scuffles amongst themselves as the males are constantly competing for position of ' top dog '.

Next up was a short wait in a hide for yellow -eyed penguins to come ashore. These are one of the worlds rarest penguins with only 4,000 remaining and are impossibly cute, as they surf in and waddle up the beach to the hills behind.We rounded off the trip with a visit to a fur seal colony where the young pups waited on the rocks for mum to return from sea.

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If you're into wildlife and visiting Dunedin , I strongly recommend the Elm Wildlife Tour!