Otago Peninsula, New Zealand

Today I made my way out to Otago Peninsula after driving Baldwin Street (New Zealand's equivalent of Lombard Street in San Francisco, except I could drive straight up it rather than the hairpin one-way downhill of Lombard!).  The Otago Peninsula is this small strip of land which stretches out from the mainland of the east coast of the south island.  I traveled along a shoreline road, shocked that they did not have a guardrail as I drove right along the edge of a small drop-off into the ocean!  It seems this is often true here in NZ - its up to you to make sure you don't fall off the cliffs!

I went all the way out to the tip of the peninsula where I found the Royal Albatross Center, the only mainland royal albatross breeding ground in the world.  Here I got to watch 2 male albatrosses fly high above from a viewing station, while a female sat on her foster egg (her real egg, of which they only produce one every 2 years, died.... so they've given her a foster egg to sit on!).  Their wingspan reaches an amazing 3 meters (I have no idea what that is in feet... but its long!).

After watching the albatrosses soar, I headed back down the peninsula to Sandfly Bay, a favorite of the Ryan-O'Flaherty household.  Here, the hope is to get to watch the penguins come out of the ocean late in the afternoon for a night's rest on shore.

Sandfly Bay

I got down to the beach and found there to be numerous birds.  I walked the length of the beach and found the hiding cabin where you are to wait and watch for penguins to come.  Unfortunately, there were no penguins to be seen, but I did find a sea lion sunbathing and intermittently stretching; I believe this pose is reverse downward facing dog.

"Walk down this beach, and the viewing hut is up on the left"

Sea Lion

After a few hours on the beach I headed back to Dunedin, taking the high road home, affording me these views of the ocean & harbor. Beautiful!

Tomorrow I leave Dunedin and head back over to the west coast to the Fiordland to take on the sandflies...... they are suppose to be ferocious!  This is the home of famous Milford Sound and Milford Track ~ should be stunning!  I'll be there for the next several days so this is likely the last post for a while....