Wildlife Day... I love Albatross!

It’s so nice to start the day off with a great breakfast, and then we were off to check out the Otago Peninsula where we saw Lanarch Castle which was probably in the best location ever (Curt and I decided we want one), with amazing gardens. Then we headed on to the Royal Albatross Center where we were in for a huge treat (but we didn’t know it when we got there)! We had a briefing on the birds (they’re huge – much bigger than I thought they would be – wing span of 9-12 feet, and standing up they are almost up to a person’s waist), and then went up to the observation center.

There are currently 3 nests within view of the deck, and we could see the mothers, fuzzy 3 week old chicks, and a juvenile hanging out nearby. We were told we probably wouldn’t see a ton of flight activity as it wasn’t very windy (they are soarers so need that extra help), so we were just checking them out, when all of a sudden, one soars in to the area of one of the nests! Our guide got really excited at that point – the parents take turns watching over the egg and chick, so one goes out to eat and feed at sea for a week or so, and then comes back to do what’s termed as the “change over.” It only happens once a week, and can happen at any time of day or night, and we were on that one hour tour where one happened!

So the one parent flew in, they chatted and clicked bills for a few minutes, then preened each other, and they did a calculated maneuver where one took over for the other so the chick was always in contact with a parent, and then the other waddled off and took flight. The whole thing happened over only 5-7 minutes, but it was so fun to watch and everyone (including the guide) was so excited!

After our tour we went down to the cliffs, and as the wind was picking up we saw some more flights, and some seals below… so perfect!

Then we went to another site called Penguin Place which is a reserve for Yellow Eyed Penguins, which is covered with blinds so you can have close encounters without disturbing them, and we saw molting adult birds and chicks about to leave the nest! We also saw Little Blue Penguins (the smallest species) in some nests with big fuzzy chicks, and some more seals on the coastline coming out of the ocean from playing. YEA!

Then we headed back into town, got cleaned up, went to Evensong at one of the main cathedrals in town, had some yummy dinner, then home to bed.

Today we caught a flight into Auckland, relaxed, wandered around town, and as our travels will officially start VERY early again tomorrow morning we’re taking it easy right now… gonna be a really long day.

This vacation has been so awesome, though… too many great highlights to pick a favorite, and we know the memories will last a lifetime!