2 - 9 Dunedin New Zealand, Seals and Penguins

 It was thrilling and comforting to see land again after 3 days at sea. It was lush green and obviously of volcanic origin.  The Otago Harbor is 12 miles long with a narrow channel deep enough for large ship through about 6 miles.  We arrived at Port Chalmers as scheduled at 9am.  Viking provided shuttle rides into the town of Dunedin.  Instead we spent the day on our excursion to the Penguin beach at Nature's Wonders (Bird Preservation area).

                                            Our dock was in the industrial section.

Yes definitely industrial.  The make shift fence was made with trailers.  Plenty of dock workers were ready for our arrival.  This may be the first time we did not have a tugboat escort.  Phil said they probably didn't have one.  Also the channel in was so narrow, there probably wasn't space for a tug adjacent to the ship.  We did have a local pilot on board.

The ride to Nature's Wonders was a 1 hr motorcoach ride through Dunedin and then the countryside. Dunedin is a Scottish town.  Logging of radii pine is important business along with clam exports.  In the busy season pine log trucks arrive at the port at the rate of one per minute!.  About 700 tons of clams are exported every year.  Often to the US.  Their delivery time is within 48 hrs.  They are fresh!

The road bordered the harbor waters, no extra width for bikes, walkers or runners until recently.  Moms pushing a push chair with loggin trucks every minute convinced locals that dedicated foot trails were needed.   Much nicer, much safer.  Some of the trails are boardwalks over the habor water as there is no room next to the road.

The only dental school in New Zealand is in Dunedin.  Someone had fun with these statues.

Here is a wide section of the bike/foot path.  Wait, there is a stand up paddleboarder in the water.

                                        The paddleboarder has the help of a dog!

                                                                        Black swans.

When we arrived at Nature's Wonders it smelled like a bakery.  They had tea and fresh scones ready.   This is Rita, and David.  We met them just today during this snack.

Time to meet our guide, and climb on the Argo, eight wheel drive.  All the front row seats were taken, we rode in the back with another couple.  Total passengers per Argo = 6.

Instant cloud of dust.  If you look closely, you might see the Argo that followed behind us.  We were on the 2nd of 4 Argos.

We stopped to take turns riding to the top of a overlook. Here is the 3rd Argo.

                                            Then on to the point where seals live and play.  There were a lot of babies, one male and several females.  One male seal can mate with upto a dozen  females.  Moms have one pup and nurse the pup for 9 months.  Here the births occur on land, after a few days the pups will be able to swim.

                                        Clam shells from this area are used to make jewelry.  

Then to the hillside with the blue penguins.  They live on the hillside, not on the beach,  and are smaller than most people think.  Nature's Wonders built discrete wooden corridors along the hillside, then built penguin houses alongside the corridor.  Similar to a bird house.  The penguins laid eggs in these houses (30+ day incubation period) then raised, i.e. fed, the young while they were in the house nest.  Just like birds in my yard at home.  So today we peeked into the nesting sites and saw baby blue penguins.  And understandably and unfortunately no photos allowed.  After all we were within a foot of the babies.

This is an internet photo - just to give you an idea of what we saw.

Here is the beach where the parents walked to and entered the sea, hunting food for their babies.

Happy to have seen penguins.  Phil looks amazingly clean after the Argo ride.  BTY he did wear a rain coat for the ride, it wasn't so clean.

I had the seat in the back, dirtiest seat possible.

First thing we did when getting back to the ship - was laundry.  Its so nice to be able to stick the dirty clothes in the washer - free of charge.  Otherwise I'd have bagged everything up and packed them as is.

My new preferred place for yoga is in the room.  Our new (smaller) room has more floor space room for my mat. And the view is the best.

Phil took this photo for Mark - see the chopsticks?

Tomorrow is Christchurch & Mona Vale Gardens, an included tour. Tonight is our last dinner at a speciality restaurant, Chef's Table.