Days 9-10: Penguins!!!

Update:

Another full day in the beautiful city of Dunedin! Day 9 has been my favorite of the entire trip thus far. We slept in late and woke to a sunny, breezy day. We decided to head to the octagon for some gourmet waffles. Mine had strawberry sauce drizzled over top some fresh raspberries, boysenberries, and kiwi fruit. 

We walked around the city for a while and headed back to the bus. It took us down the Otago Peninsula, where we had three of the most exciting tours scheduled. First we walked through a yellow-eyed penguin hospital, where many of the patients were underweight for their molt or had too many feathers missing to swim successfully. The chicks were clumsy little fluff balls, and their little hops to get up on a rock was the most adorable thing to watch! The adults were happily splashing around their little pool and honking at us. After looking into the enclosures, our guides, Lou and Ra, headed down the brush the area overlooking a beach. The beach is protected and potentially the only one in the area without human footprints. This is to help protect the habitat of the endangered birds. Wild yellow-eyed penguins are nocturnal and therefore unpredictable in the daytime. Our guides could not promise we would spot one, and unfortunately we did not. We did still spot some wildlife: a tiny two-day old blue penguin chick! The camera shutter was too loud and its nesting box too dark for me to take a picture without disturbing the chick, so I sadly do not have a picture of it. I do, however, have many pictures of seals! They were everywhere, sunning themselves on the rocks and loving life. They were adorable!

After our penguin tour, we headed to the Royal Albatross Center to look at another species of bird. Unlike the penguins, albatross can fly and have wingspans of up to 3 meters! They lay eggs every two years, spend a year hatching and nurturing the fledgling, then on their very first flight they spend five years flying towards South America. They sleep by floating on the ocean, and spend up to 36 hours just sailing on the ocean winds. We saw many of these majestic birds on top of a little hill, then quickly went through a military fort. It is one of four British-built strongholds on New Zealand, but there were never any threats requiring use of the forts.

We stopped at a pub for some really good seafood chowder and fancy mochas for dinner. Since our third and final tour was not until sunset, we killed time by tossing a frisbee on a beach. Then came the highlight of my day: watching the little blue penguins return to shore! Blue penguins leave one parent at home on the shore to watch the egg, or leave an older chick by its own, and spend all day fishing. They return with food and have sunset family reunions! They are only 25 centimeters tall and have blue backs with white fronts. Seeing this wild animals in their natural habitat, instead of in a zoo, is a memorable experience I'm so glad this trip provided me with!

The next day was spend driving to Wanaka. We drove through the land used for filming Rohan from Lord of the Rings, and also stopped at the Pillars of the Kings and the Anduin River fords (outside of Rivendell). Another fantastic stop was a fresh fruit stand! They make fresh fruit ice cream and have some amazing cherries, white peaches, and mandarins. After this one night in Wanaka, we will be staying in the backcountry for four nights without internet. This is Mahu Whenua, our wildlife conservation project! I am so excited for it!

The Best and Worst of New Zealand (So Far):

Like I said above, my favorite place so far was the penguin colony. I already adored these funky little creatures, but seeing them in their natural habitat was really eye-opening for me. Their funny little hops and waddles are really their only way to move, and as comic as they are, it can really put them in danger from predators. They are smart in using the cover of darkness and camouflage to survive, and I have a new appreciation for these smartly-dressed birds. I really hope the protected colonies are successful in revitalizing the penguin population. The beaches and Otago peninsula surrounding the colony only help my raving review of the place; with gentle ocean waves on one side and lofty mountains on the other, you can't go wrong no matter which window you look out of!

My least favorite place was Auckland. We only experienced the airport, to be fair, and spent most of the time in customs only to miss our flight. As far as places we've actually spent time in, however, my least favorite place thus far was Wellington. I enjoyed the city, but compared to all the other beautiful landscapes we've seen, it's not as breathtaking as I initially thought. It is a good way to ease into the nature of New Zealand, and probably kept my dulled American senses from being overwhelmed by picture-perfect scenery. We also spent the least amount of time in the actual city itself. Since it was the most commercial and least nature-focused (not counting our Zealandia excursion, since I consider that the cable car took us outside of Wellington), it was the lowest ranking place on my list. However, I still love all of New Zealand and this trip and would happily take another chance to come here, even only to Wellington!