Day 2

So I'm writing this post in the rain, at 6 in the morning, in the middle of Dunedin, NZ's town square. This blog post probably could have waited for a more suitable time and place, but I really wanted to get my thoughts down as soon as I could.Yesterday, we began our day with breakfast at the hotel.We then took our bus to the local University, where we listened to a very interesting lecture about the history of New Zealand tourism, and what the best path for it's future would be. Then it was back to the hotel for a quick lunch on our own. A group of girls sat in our room and we passed around a jar of vegemite and some bread. Vegemite is disgusting. I didn't actually think it would be that bad, but it has this weird trait where the longer it's in your mouth the worse it gets.

After lunch we hoped in some vans lead by an Eco Tour company.

They had a pretty spiffy logo, too.

They drove us around the peninsula, through just lovely scenery.They drove us to one end of the peninsula. It was supposedly the only spot in the world where albatrosses nest on the mainland. In all other spots they nest in offshore islands. We couldn't see the nests thought. The non-scientists every allowed near the nests was Prince Charles when he came to visit. And we weren't considered as important as prince Charles. But we could stand on the cliffs and look over the ocean, and we were told if we were lucky we would see one flying out to see. And we did. I saw 4 albatrosses total. 1 royal and 3 lesser species. And they are magnificent. Great wide wings, gliding just above the water. All to soon we were ushered back on the van and shuttled off to the other end of the peninsula. We climbed down a steep trail and reached a nice secluded beach, right before sun set. There were probably a dozen large Hooker Sealions lounging on the beach.

Look at those Hooker Sealions lounge

 They're the rarest species of Sealion in the world.  We were able to get right up close to them. One of them was a little peeved at our presence, and chased us. And by chased I mean took an aggressive step towards us, and I ran away like a little girl. The sealions were very content to lounge around, occasionally getting up to pick on one another. Also on the beach were yellow eyed penguins. Let me tell you about these little guys. Dunedin used to be covered in forests that the penguins would nest in. Yes, thats right, these penguins are forest dwelling creatures.

Best photo I could get of the little guys.

The penguins are very shy so we had to hide in little huts. They would swim to shore, walk across the beach, and then hop their way up the steep grass hill side and scuttle into the bushes where they kept they're nests. The penguins would walk right past the sheep and not even be phased. I really wish I could have gotten a better picture of them. They were really very cute. We then climb back up hill that somehow became impossibly steep while we were on the beach. And then we walked down the other side. On the other side of the hill were tide pools with New Zealand Fur seals. Oh boy, these were cute. There were seal pups everywhere. Itty bitty things that played and splashed about in the tide pools and looked at us with just the cutest eyes. And there were a hundred of them! It was very neat to see. The sun set and we took a couple group photos and returned to the van. The day was completed by a long drive home through the darkening country side, with the town of Dunedin lit up in the distance. It was a truly amazing day.






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