Steep Streets and Wildlife

We were up and about early to make the most of the morning before our wildlife tour pick up at 1. The museum didn't open until 19, so we headed off to the World's Steepest Street, Baldwin Street about a 6 or 7 minute drive away.

We got there and it certainly looked steep and we started to walk up - it was steep and about half way up the gradient increased even more. We took some photos to show the angle and then headed down. We met a couple on the way up who got to the top and rolled an apple down from there - it certainly picked up some pace.

We dropped the car back to the motel an walked a block across to the Otago Museum. It was still a little before 10 but the coffee shop was open so we had a drink and then went in. We wanted to see the Tropical Rain Forest with butterflies in it. This had a small cost but was well worth it as before the butterfly section there was an interactive part with all sorts of games illustrating physics and biology - one was an air hockey table and another involved wearing a headset and competing against an opponent to move a ball towards the other goal by using your brainwaves only. The more you relaxed the more the ball moved towards the opponents goal - Sam beat me!

We then went into the butterflies. There were lots of colourful ones flapping around with a big waterfall in the room and a few birds too. Tash didn't like the flapping and sheltered near the door. The rest of us wandered round then at 11 one of the keepers came with a big case of new butterflies that had hatched that night. She took them out one by one and explained a bit about them to us (there were only 3 other people watching) and placed some on us 0 Ed took the first one. We had quite a few settle on us and Ed aqnd Sam had one on their heads. This part was awesome according to Ed, though Tash had to go back out and finish her colouring as she just didn't like them fluttering around hr.

We then went up to the Animal Attic, which had various stuffed animals, eggs, skulls, insects etc in it. Proved very interesting especially to Ed who loves that kind of thing.

A quick bit of lunch in the museum cafe then back to the motel to await our wildlife tour pick up. This came early and after picking up 3 other people our guide Tony drove us out to the Otago peninsula. It took about 40 minutes to get to the albatross centre. Whilst the wind was in the right direction Tony explained that there were 27 babies in the centre so 54 parents flying about. but each came back with food for about 10 minutes every 5 or 6 days so the chances of seeing on was slim. This proved to be the case and so we went into the visitor centre for a cake and aa souvenir then back into the minibus. Learned that albatrosses fly very close to the sea only a little way above the waves rather than high up as I had thought. Waited a few minutes for a couple of folks on the tour who had paid extra to see the albatross chicks, then off to the private land on the other side of the peninsula. We drove around a tidal inlet that was only about a foot deep and up onto the private farmland. We walked down fairly steep slopes to overlook a rocky shoreline where fur seals congregate. There were lots of baby ones (about 7 or 8 months old) and a few mothers. They were very cute and looked up at us as though asking for food. We also saw a couple of albatrosses from here, swooping just above the waves, though not the largest Royal Albatross but a slightly smaller species.

We then climbed back up and down the other side of the headland to a sandy beach to see sea lions and penguins. The logs on the beach turned out to be sea lions when we got closer and there were 12 of them in total, out of a New Zealand total population of about 130. Of those only bout 10% are females. This is because females tend to stay where they are born whereas males roam off. The colony in NZ were roaming males, but a few years back one female came up with them from further south and as she was pregnant when she gave birth she stayed to look after the (female) pup and thus some females appeared in the colony and the n umber gradually goes up as more are produced. They were still sleeping from the feed the night before but starting to stir and several of them woke up briefly, yawned stretched and dozed back off. Just before the beach were lots of nesting boxes for Blue Penguins and one of the boxes had a little guy in it!

We got very close to some of the sea lions and then walked to the other end of the beach where more yellow eyed penguins normally nested. Whilst waiting it transpired Tash was worried about being mauled by a sea lion and shut the little gate to the hide area we were in in case any of them sneaked up on us! We saw one quite quickly that was up the hillside. After a few minutes what looked like a duck swam ashore then stood up and was another penguin. It was very comical waddling across the beach (low tide meant it had a fair way to walk) then did some classic hops up some rocks before stopping a little way up the hillside. Shortly after a second one followed the same routine, though moving a bit quicker. These penguins are quite rare, only about 4,000 in the world. We walked back along the beach looking at the sea lions again, still sleepy and saw a fur seal in the surf. Sea lions can eat fur seals so the suggestion was he was a young guy a bit lost and would head for the rocks. We had learned that seals generally live on rocks and sea lions on beaches.

Then it was back up the slope to the minibus.. About half way up we saw a sea lion had woken up and was moving across the beach and he woke up another couple and they started to play fight. Tash expressed relief that we weren't down there when they woke up - the rest of us had the opposite view!

Once back to the minibus we drove back to town arriving just after 8 - didn't seem like we had been away for over 5 hours. We had a big tex mex dinner in the restaurant opposite the motel then retired to bed.Read more