PENGUINS!!!

today is the day of penguins. first stop was the otago peninsula on the south side of dunedin. i first stopped at the royal albatross center (ok so really it is the day of birds) and learned about them. they started a nesting colony on otago only in the last 50 years bc the army cleared the site for a military placement and it is the only place where the albatross nest that is on mainland (as mainland as an island country can get i suppose) and that is easily accessible. albatross can have a wingspan of 3 meters and when sitting on the ground they are HUGE like ottomans really. so i visited the center, watched the little video and then hiked up to the observatory to see the real live thing. they are nesting so suprise all i saw was four white lumps just sitting in the grass on a hill. exciting. but one of them did get up and have a peak at its egg - whcih they apparently do when the chick in the egg is moving about. neat. there were lots of othter birds visible like shags - with fuzzy brown babies and lots of gulls about. so lots of easily seen birds.

next stop the penguin place. so the brochure shows these people ridiculously close to yellow eyed penguins (YEPs). i had seen five or so yeps the previous day while looking for seals and was excited that i could see them chilling in some tall grass. i figured that was good propoganda and i would see some specs, but hey lets check it out. WRONG. from the top of the hill, we could see two penguins on the sand (low tide so they had a ways to go) tour leader dave hustled us down the hill through the trenches in time to see the yeps hopping and walking up the grass path (apparently they use the same paths all the time). then we were hustled to another bunker via the trenches to see them hop past again (and to tell exactly which nest they were headed towards) and then to another bunker where we got to see penguin greet its mate and chicks in penguin squawking-arm flapping endearment and then regurgitate soem food for its two tiny gray fuzzy chicks. awesome. so they were close while in their burrow and i could see what was going on... but one hopped past so close i could have stuck my arm out to pet it... awesome. (and no i wouldnt have - it's a reserve and yeps are the rarest penguin in the world with only about 4000 members total).

tonight i am headed north to oamaru to see little blue or fairy penguins. first a behind the scenes tour to see nesting and chicks and then to the evening performance where like 200 of them come out of the water at once! no pictures allowed probably but i am still excited. :)