From Christchurch, I drove down the eastern coast to Dunedin (pronounced Dun-ee-din not Doonedin like I thought…) My plan was to drive around the southern coast of New Zealand for the next 3 or 4 days in awe of the Southern Ocean, see how far towards the remote, rugged, southwest corner of the country I could get by road, and then head up towards Fiordland National Park along the west coast.
The scenery on the way down to Dunedin was pretty, and was a big departure from the rolling agrarian grassy hobbit lands of the North Island. Still lots of farms (I read that New Zealand has more sheep per capita than anywhere in the world), but now I could see some mountains in the distance, off to the west. My first peaks at the Southern Alps, which run the distance of the Southern Island.
I meandered my way down the coast, more or less, and stopped at a small town about halfway. It was one of those charming type of small towns, the kind they would put in a big dome and make Jim Carrey live in, against his will. My main reason for stopping was that it was supposedly home to a Blue Penguin colony on the beach… but the sight that greeted me when I walked up to the fence was much more reminiscent of a smelly seaweed and seagull colony than a cute penguin one.
That was ok, though, because it was still a beautiful day and they had a pretty cool park right across the parking lot that I went and sat in for a while. They had a fishing pier
and on the far side, that created a breakwater for a small harbor with some nice looking sailboats in it
Frankly, though, I was jealous of the playground the most. This thing was stacked and the kids had awesome stuff to play on! They had one of those barrel things you run around in (like a human hampster-wheel) that I’ve only seen in small town Worland, Wyoming where my Grandpa lived (you had to run down the alley with the barking dogs to get to it, but it was soo worth it)
a tarzan rope swing with a mini-tarzan on it
and a creepy clown unicycle swing
Yeah, wasn’t exactly jealous of that last one, but the rest of the stuff was sweet and the kids were having a lot of fun running from their mothers and tearing around on the stuff. I should mention, for the grown up children, there was a brewery and free wifi right behind the park, as well.
After the break, I hopped back into the car to finish the drive to Dunedin.
Along the way, I got stuck behind this guy
who was scattering half his load, Johnny Apleseed style, along the road. Kind of amusing to think about how confused he is going to be when he gets to his destination and his truck is empty!
It eventually started to get dark, and zooming by, I noticed an awesome pond on one of the farms I was passing that would be perfect for the upcoming sunset, so I whipped my van of awesomeness onto the shoulder and then hike/waded across a ditch with waist high weeds to scope it out. I didn’t have to wait too long, and I think the pictures were worth it – because it was absolutely beautiful.
I was playing around with a different shot later – I made it black and white and inverted it – and I think it looks a little bit like a Rorschach test. What do you think?
I see bikes.
After the sunset, I decided to go check out one more small town by the coast, just an hour away from Dunedin. I had originally planned to go see some rock formations they have there, that are like big round marble-shaped boulders that are just offshore, but since I spent so much time on the farm watching the sunset, and extracting myself from the weeds, it was going to be too dark to get a picture by the time I got there. I thought I would swing by anyway and take a look, since they were on the way.
You have to go up and over this bluff to get there, and I just caught the last of the sunset over one of the bays along the shore when I was going through.
When I got to the town, I couldn’t find the boulders, so I pulled off into the town marina to turn around. As I did so, I noticed that they had a really cool looking fishing pier that stuck out into the bay. There was just enough light left that I thought I could get a picture, so I parked the van at the head of the pier, and was laying on the roof to get the shot (the only way I could get a long exposure without a tripod) when a fishing boat came into the bay and pulled up to the dock. I hadn’t intended to have it in the shot, but they turned out pretty cool.
The fishermen thought it was pretty odd at first, walking up the dock to see me laying on my van, but I showed them the pictures and they thought it was awesome and I ended up talking to them for a little bit while they loaded up their truck. They reminded me of the Deadliest Catch dudes, only not so melodramatic. And I don’t think their catch was that deadly.
I did eventually make it down to Dunedin. Just in time, it turns out, to attend a rugby game between the Dunedin Highlanders and a team from South Africa that had flown out to play them. Now, I have tried to watch Rugy before, an Ozzie Rules game when I was in Sydney years ago, and failed to understand it even though I had plenty of locals to explain the rules to me, however, the guys I met in Christchurch told me that I couldn’t miss a game here, because the stadium is one of the nicest in New Zealand (it’s covered, but still open to the air, so it was pretty cold but dry), New Zealand Rugy is far superior to Ozzie Rules, and the atmosphere at the game would be awesome. So, off I went.
I still didn’t really understand anything that was happening in the game, other than the fact that Dunedin was up by 23-0 at the half, and then completely tanked to almost lose the game in the second half (23-22), but for the saving grace of a last minute missed free kick by South Africa. So, I’ll admit, the atmosphere was more one of disgust by the Dunedin crowd, rather than the racous vibe and lively vibe that was described to me in Christchurch, but it was still a good time. And besides, being a Denver Broncos fan, performances like that make me a bit nostalgic.
I had some fish and chips, sat next to a nice couple of elderly people from Dunedin that talked to me about the area, about life in New Zealand and, tragically, about their visits to the U.S. solely to watch horse races.
The next day, I drove out to the end of the Otago Penninsula, just south of town and the self-named ‘Wildlife Capitol of New Zealand.’ They’ve got seals and penguin colonies out there, and even cooler, an Albatross colony out at the very end of the penninsula. What they failed to mention is that it also appears to be some kind of biking and running nirvana, judging by the numbers of people out and about when I was driving through, and the scenery they are being treated to. Check these views out
Ok. This peninsula has my attention.
Getting back to the non-spandex-wearing wildlife, I didn’t bother with the penguins, since they are super shy and would probably only come ashore just before the sunset, so I headed for the Albatross colony.
You have to go all the way out to the very end of the penninsula.
The birds nest on the far side of the hill at the end, overlooking the ocean, and the wildlife conservation folks have built a combination museum and wildlife refuge on the near side. You have to pay them to go see the birds (big surprise), but you get to walk up there with a wildlife ranger who gave a pretty interesting tour, and they’ve got this really cool building with one-way mirrors for windows and sound-proofing, so the birds can’t see or hear you.
In fact, I had almost completely forgotten how awesome Albatross are. Here’s some quick facts that shows why you should care:
Fact #1. They have 10 foot wingspans that they use like gliders to soar on the air currents. These dudes are big birds. Even the babies (which we were guaranteed to see, because they can’t fly yet) are huge, like up to 40 lbs huge. Here’s an example
Here’s one of the real babies having a bit of a stretch on the hillside in front of the building. He was trying to walk around, but they can’t walk very well because they can’t support their body weight, so he didn’t get very far.
Fact #2. An Albatross can live for up to 60 years. Maybe longer. Once the baby is born, it spends 6 months or so growing at the nest, while the parents take turns coming in from the ocean to feed it and fly off again.
Fact #3. Albatross’ spend around 80% of their lives at sea. They fly up to 1000 km’s a day over the roughest, most remote, ocean on the planet, and trough some of the worst storms. They have to travel so far and wide to find food, and they land on the water to sleep. In fact, once a newborn albatross gets old enough to fly, it will take off, fly out to sea, and not return to dry land again for around 5 years.
Fact #4. Because they are ocean wanderers, Albatross’ colonies are usually only found on remote, desolate specks of islands in the middle of nowhere. In fact, the end of the Otago Penninsula in New Zealand is the only widely accesible location in the world where you can see them in the wild.
This picture shows their territory
and you can see that most of them are in the extreme south. There are a few in the Northern hemisphere, and they live on some of the remote islands in the Hawaiian chain and off of Japan. The populations of almost all the species are really low, and most are some level of endangered. In fact, they are doing some really fantastic conservation work at the center, in husbanding the colony and educating the public (and the fishing industry specifically).
Fact #5. Even after spending 5 years at sea, flying up to 1000 km’s per day, they can return to the same spot they were born to raise their own young. I don’t know how they do it, but that’s impressive.
Ok, that’s enough about the Albatross. They are cool. Even ancient mariners thought they were cool (signs of good luck, actually), and these are the dudes that hunted anything and everything, practically to extinction.
We got lucky after we had been watching the babies for a little while, because one of the parents showed up.
It was actually pretty funny, because even when they are grown, they don’t walk so well, so they like to land close to their nest. However, being gliders and so huge, they are a bit like a jumbo Boeing 787 on approach, and this guy had to wave off and go back around like 3 times before he stuck the landing.
After the scoping the Albatross colony, I headed back towards town, planning to continue the drive south along the coast to the next city, 2-3 hours away. However, as I was making my way along the penninsula’s coastal rode, it was such a fantastic day, and so many people were out walking or jogging or sitting at a cafe at the tiny village, that I started to get the jogger/biker nirvana feeling again, and said screw it and pulled in to go for a run and enjoy what was left of the afternoon. Another night around Dunedin wouldn’t kill me, and I could continue to Invercargill in the tomorrow.
I didn’t regret it. It was one of the prettiest runs I’ve done in a very long time. I started at the little village, right next to a beach, and ran back along the coast towards the end of the penninsula and back again.
I finished an hour later, sweaty and with the (probably obnoxious) 3-foot-wide smile still intact. Now where could I get a shower? Oh, that’s right, there’s a beach right here! And in I went. Good news was that I was able to check off my post-run ice bath at the same time! Brrr… Luckily my van was close by, with some very inviting fleece waiting for me.
I spent the rest of the day sitting outside the cafe, watching sailboats and skyping Sarah.
What a great couple of days! And even better to come, I’m sure, as I explore the even more remote and rugged coast along the Catlin Forest Park and the south of New Zealand. Until then,
A Bientot!
The Peak Penguin 