New Zealand Discoverer

Day Seven – 3 March 2012 – Day of the Penguin

Weather: cloud, some sun, 13

I got a really good night’s sleep. My phone was located on the desk, so when my wake up call came in, I found myself wandering across a dark room and fumbling over all my stuff for this phone that had no lights.

I packed up quick and made for the lobby to get in some more time on my free internet. Gotta take it when you got it. I went into the restaurant for breakfast and gave the girl my room number – from the last hotel.

She gave me a funny look and said “all your friends are gone. Your missed your bus!”

I give her a funny look and point to the occupied tables in the corner and say “no, my friends are here.”

Then I realized I was in a different hotel, a different room, a different town.

A different universe.

Yeah, we all get to this point in a tour when everything blurs. Only my medication holder reminds me of what day of the week it is. And this morning, while I was in the bathroom, I was listening to the news and was thinking “wow, I really can’t understand the New Zealand accent at all.”

Then I go out an realize that the news broadcast is being spoken in the native Maori language. Heh.

Breakfast was the usual fare. As I chowed down on the sausage, it suddenly occurred to me that it could be any animal – not just beef or pork. I’ll have to ask.

We board the bus and as we drive towards Dunedin (pronounced Done Eden) Nellie gives a history lesson (or rather continues the one she started days ago). She talked about Cook who had originally come to NZ to take measurements for the Transit of Venus and while he was here, he took the opportunity to explore the islands.

He wasn’t the first European here. A Welshman by the name of Tasman came. He landed some men on the shore and they met up with some Maori tribesmen who laid down a palm as a symbol of peace. The point of the palm was that the other side was supposed to pick it up, but Tasman’s men didn’t know the ritual and left it on the ground.

And the Maori killed them all.

Wonder what would have happened if they had had Google back then.

We pass through a lot of gorgeous farmland on the way to Dunedin. Nellie said there used to be 70 million sheep here but now it’s half that number.

I’ve met most of them.

Sheep farming is being replaced by dairy which is much more profitable. There are two main types of sheep here. Romney and Merino. The Romney are the low country sheep and the Merino prefer the high country (above 1500 feet). The fur of the Merino is superior.

Sheep farmers like to get twins from their ewes and give them a couple years to produce. If they don’t, they get to go on a nice Sunday drive with the farmer.

The farmer usually has 70 ewes for every ram.

Yeah. I know what you’re thinking. Tsk Tsk.

Nellie says that the ram wears a harness on its chest which dispenses chalk so that when he “services” an ewe, it leaves a chalk mark so the farmer knows which ones are “serviced.”

I would think it would be easier just to find the ones that are having a cigarette.

When Nellie finished her sheep talk, she put on her sheep music – Don’t Fence Me In.

We get morning tea in a town called Gore. It’s a sleepy farming town with a bunch of cafes that are open. I pick up lunch (since I won’t get a chance before the wildlife cruise). As we leave Gore, Nellie tells us there’s another town 44 km away called Clinton.

I kid you not.

In fact, they call that stretch of road the Presidential Highway even though neither town has anything to do with Al Gore or Bill Clinton.

Nellie tells us to look to the left and right as we travel down the highway and asks us if we see the little “Bushes” on either side.

And the Romney sheep grazing behind them.

Baaaahahahahaha!

Then Nellie puts on comedian Hal Roach for a good laugh. I’ve heard him before on tour. He’s the one that keeps saying “write it down.”

So I did.

Ever hear of the Englishman who asked the doctor if he had a cure for insomnia. The Irish doctor said yes, a good night’s sleep.

How about the Englishman that came to the escalator late at night that had a sign that said “Dogs must be carried up escalator at all times” and the Englishman wondered where he was going to get a dog at that time of night.

Ever go to bingo in Ireland? They call out the numbers in Latin so the Protestants can never win.

Or ever hear about the gas station attendant that told the driver they don’t serve gas or oil cause they’re a front for the IRA…so the driver asks if they could blow up his tires.

Heh. You get the picture.

We make another stop at a shop and cafe that offers wool goods at a pretty good price as they get it direct from the factory up the road. I picked up a teal coloured fleece with New Zealand on it with the fern insignia.

It’s not far to Dunedin and Nellie points out a scenic drive sign and tells us how beautiful that area is.

Then she says “we’re not going that way.”

heh.

We enter a tiny town that has some signs outside its limits indicating that they want people to slow down.

After a couple of those, another sign comes along that says “No doctor. No Hospital. One cemetery.”

We enter Dunedin soon after. It’s a city of 120,000 and a fifth of that number are students.

We get a quick tour of the core of the city and see a church made of black volcanic rock, the old rugby stadium and the Octagon (not sure what that is). The city is located at the end of a very long and very well protected harbour. (22 km long, I believe).

Then the bus drops six of us off at the Monarch Wildlife cruise office by the water. A lot of others wanted to do the tour, but Nellie couldn’t guarantee they would see penguins, but I asked about that while on the tour and was told that if they did the tour and didn’t see a single penguin, they’d get a refund and apparently it doesn’t happen often (usually only in winter).

The tour cost $139 NZD and was worth every penny. It started with a bus ride down the Otago Peninsula (it’s the eastern side of the protected harbour) through some beautiful landscape. Best part, the sun came out between the clouds and brightened up the shots nicely.

Our first stop was to Penguin Place – a privately owned sanctuary that protects the wild habitat for the penguins and cares for injured or orphaned penguins. We first got a talk by a local guide who thanked us for helping him put gas in his truck and food on his table. Really great guy.

He tells us about the penguins and how they try to protect the area from land predators and are trying to re-introduce native trees that attracted the penguins. Two types make the beach their home – the little blue penguin (which spends the daylight hours fishing out to sea) and the yellow-eyed variety which eats only when it feels like it, so they’re easily seen (and are the rarer type).

When he’s done with the talk, we all put on big rain jackets (it looked to rain and I thought it was raining while I was in there, but it was only the wind). We first visit three penguins in their “hospital” then we board a bus and the guide drives us towards the beach, but we’re delayed by a farmer and his dog herding a hundred or so sheep down the road.

Our guide apologizes for the delay but we don’t hear that. We’re too busy taking some great shots of the farmer and his dog herding these sheep. Our guide even helps by slowing on curves so that we can get shots from above.

Like I said, nice guy.

The sheep head off to the right and we go left, parking next to a covered trail with the words “Trench Entrance” above it.

They have a trench system leading to a bunch of hides where one can observe the penguins without bothering them.

Our guide reminds us not to make too much noise and we follow him into the trench. We walk a couple hundred metres and step into a hide. Our guide points to a little “home” made from wood and covered by growth. I don’t see anything but a rock in the entrance.

But it’s not a rock. LOL

It’s a molting adult yellow-eyed penguin with its back to us. When I looked at my photos later, I realized he was looking at us.

Then we move down another trench and our guide lifts up the camouflage netting on the side and points to another makeshift “home.” (That the native forest would provide naturally). There are two penguins inside, one with its back to us.

Too cute.

We move on and see two more penguins sitting under a tree next to a pond.

It couldn’t have gotten any more romantic.

Our guide notes that our sheep encounter has limited our time and we move on to a trail that moves alongside the beach where we come across one penguin just sitting in the bushes. How he saw it, I’ll never know. Then we come across two more just standing on the trail, posing for us.

My battery is running low!

Then as we walk away, we come across yet another guy just sitting off the trail, giving us the “eye.”

I think that’s a dozen wild penguins. We’re told that’s exceptional.

Our guide drives us back to Penguin Place and we board our first bus for a drive to the dock where we board our cruise boat. It’s not a huge boat – smaller than the average fishing boat, but perfect for this cruise.

We are looking for the albatross birds (in the only spot where they nest in the southern hemisphere – at least I’m sure they said that). Nellie had said it was a good day to see them because of the high wind which they like.

Sure enough, it doesn’t take long to see the huge birds soaring right above us.

They’re not hard to photograph either. The guide on the ship points out the birds in the grass on the hillside above us and points to flying ones.

He identifies the other birds and we go wild taking pics as the sun comes out.

Then we go out farther and see some fur seals on the coast and then hundreds of gulls fishing for barracuda.

I even see a fur seal swimming next to the boat. The guide also points out that there is a second type of albatross flying around us.

Again, an exceptional day they say to see both kinds.

The swells outside the harbour were a hoot too.

The cruise takes about an hour and we have the choice of taking the bus back to town or riding the ship down the 20 odd kilometres to the dock. I can see a bank of mist that has been hanging over Dunedin all afternoon and figure the ride won’t show us much and we all take the bus back. This time, we take the scenic shoreline route and the bus drops us right back to our hotel.

Nice spot, the Southern Cross. The room has two beds and is quite spacious. Even the TV has Nat Geo on it! Internet is a reasonable $5 for two hours. It has all the amenities of the other hotels plus a robe. In fact, the hotel amenities have pretty well been identical except for internet availability and cost. Even the breakfasts are all very similar.

I don’t get a lot of time to do anything as dinner is for 7. I go down and find it’s a menu with three choices. I take the veggie soup, chicken and pavlova. Another delicious meal. I spoke to some of the others who had decided not to go on the penguin optional. They thought the chances of seeing them wouldn’t be worth the cost.