Tuesday 17th April. Otago peninsular

Albatross chick - bigger than a full grown
 chicken -fluffier too!

Oh my gollie – David Attenborough himself would be impressed!  We drove out along the spectacular Otago peninsular in the search of Royal Albatross, apparently the only place in the world where they breed on the mainland and not only did we see a few chicks but even managed to see a few gliding above us – they have a wing span of over 3 metres. Really a sight to behold in flight, quite dorky when they waddle around on land.  






At the headland there is also an old fortress that was used in world war 1 with a hidden cannon that pops up out  of the ground and fires at enemy ships. We did a whole tour through the underground tunnels that housed all the soldiers and the cannon. The boys had THE best time and even I found it pretty cool.

We then head off to a wild beach that apparently sometimes has sea lions –males get up to 400kg!  And yes no sooner had we walked down to the beach we found a male and his partner having a nap. 






 We then joined a late afternoon tour to try and see some yellow eyed penguins coming in from the day out fishing at sea. They are one of the rarest penguins in the world.   The tour started with a one hour hike along a headland where we saw some fur seal playing in the rockpools, and then as we headed down to the beach we spotted several penguins waddling out of the surf and up to their nests in the dunes.  


What a day. All three boys took a gazillion photos that Im sure they can bore you all with one day soon.  We didn’t get back till 7.30pm so it was a dinner of 2 minutes noodles and NZ ales while watching Whale Rider.  Phew...I am exhausted.....happily so.

Seat with a view next to our cottage.