We had booked a tour on the Otago Peninsula today, a place world renowned for it’s eco tourism and abundance of wildlife. We were travelling with Elm Wildlife Tours, a company that runs small group tours that take you out to private conservation areas on the peninsula.
We waited outside our campsite for the bus,
and at 1:15pm we were away on route to our first stop the Royal Albatross Centre. The centre, which is at the tip of the peninsula, at Taiaroa Head has the world’s only mainland breeding colony of the giant northern royal albatross. We were apprehensive about seeing them in the air, as they need winds of up to 15-20 knots to be able to take off, and it was not a very windy day. On arrival at the centre we were led up to the observatory that overlooks the nests, where 3 chicks sat.
As we took a closer look we could see that there was one parent home feeding a chick. Our guide told us that it was rare to get a chance to see this, as most of the adults spend all of their lives at sea, returning to the nests for 10 minutes every 1-2 days to feed their young. We then saw this parent take a run down the hillside and take off, seeing the 3 metre wingspan in action.
Once the chicks are left by their parents, in a couple of months time, they will attempt to fly and once airborne will stay at sea continuously for up to 5 years before returning to mate.
After our fascinating tour we rejoined our Elm Wildlife guide and were driven to a private conservation area, along a beautiful beach. A short steep hike down to the beach took us through blue penguin nesting areas. These small creatures (the world’s smallest penguin) are rarely seen as they are normally resting in their burrows.
As we traversed the path down we could already see half a dozen hooker sea lion on the beach and in the dunes. We felt a lot safer today though, knowing we were with an experienced guide! As we got onto the beach we saw 3 giant 400kg males asleep on the sand, and 3 juveniles playing in the sea.
As we walked down the beach we got closer to these huge creatures than we ever imagined, as our guide told us the older larger sea lions would not chase us…they would rather save their energy!
We then climbed into the dunes and started our walk to the yellow eyed penguin hide, as we did so we stumbled upon another large old male asleep. As Ben leant in for a photo the old ‘grandpa’ sea lion woke up and they spent a minute staring at each other…it was truly an amazing moment!
As we settled in the hide we saw 2 yellow eyed penguins stumble up the beach. This species of penguin are the world’s rarest, and like the hooker sea lion are found only in NZ. They are named Hoiho by the Maori, which means ‘noise shouter’, and mimics their loud and distinctive call…which we heard a lot of this evening.
You can see from the photos that they have a distinctive yellow eye band.
From where we were sat we also had a great view into the blue penguin nests that were situated on the hillside. As we leant in for a closer look we got a great view of a little fella!
Walking back we had to take a route through the sand dunes, as we could not walk on the beach because the 3 juveniles were now staking a claim. As we did so we had to pick our way around the sleeping old sea lions.
We looked down at the 3 young sea lions; the darker two males, and the lighter a female, and realised that we had front row seats for a territory war between the two males!
The larger of the two appeared to have won by the end of our visit.
We then walked back up the hill to the van and descended into another field to visit a breeding colony of NZ fur seal. As we looked out over the rocks we realised it was scattered with hundreds of mums and pups.
It was a great sight, and we felt very privileged being able to get so close.
As we walked back to the van for our ride home we thought, what a perfect day!
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