Day 34 Dunedin

The posts are coming thick and fast now as we are able to catch up with a good internet connection in San Francisco!

Dunedin station

We had a couple of hours to explore the city in the morning and went to see the railway station said to be the most photographed building in the southern hemisphere – anyway it looks better than the average British Rail.  The town centre was disappointing as far as shops were concerned but had some traditional colonial buildings.  

Pukeko

spoonbills

We soon made our way back to our accommodation because at 1:00 we were being picked up for another wildlife tour – a penguin colony and boat tour round the peninsula to see albatrosses and other sea birds etc.

hospital penguins

adult with yellow collar

Adult + 3 young penguins (no collar)

small blue penguin in his hide

It went well.  On the way in a minibus we saw spoonbills and some pukeko.  We arrived at the yellow-eyed penguin colony and were given an interesting short appreciation of their life cycle.  At this time some of them are still ashore as they moult – they have to get rid of last year’s feathers and regrow this year’s in about 2 months and all without any food as they cannot go to sea to fish because their new coat was not waterproof.  We were then led to some hides where we could observe and photograph them.  They also have a small hospital – like Gweek seal sanctuary – where they help injured and orphaned young penguins.  All brilliant stuff and we saw some blue penguins as well.

white capped albatross

northern royal albatross in flight

We then had to go to sea ourselves and managed to photograph two types of albatross and saw more seals, shearwaters and petrels.  It was quite an experience and again we were able to go out into the sea further as it was so calm.  We then made our way back to the harbour and eventually the lodgings.  We had thoroughly enjoyed a very special day for us.