Sea horse in the Dunedin aquarium - plenty of fish, sea horses, sea urchins and shells to look at, but aquarium is quite compact

View down Otago harbour on the drive from Dunedin out along the Ortago peninsula to Tairoa Head

This is what I came to see - Royal Albatross chick. Parents are away out to sea and normally away for several days at a time. Takes them 12 months from laying the egg to the chick leaving the nest. I saw only three adults whilst I was there and did manage to get a photograph of one flying but the shot is 99% sea with a dot in the left hand corner. They can fly at speeds up to 75mph.

AHHHHHH - I think they had 16 chicks this year and this one is the child of Buttons, who is one of the male birds from their oldest adult bird who lived to be 60.

2nd June 2010

Full day on the peninsula, joined by Dexter who comes from the Philippines. Enjoyed a fairly restful day looking at what the coast around the peninsula had to offer. Otago harbour is about 20 miles long and culminates at Dunedin. Dunedin itself is Gaelic for Edinburgh (I believe) and many of the places we visited in and around the city have a distinct Edinburgh slant, like Portabello, Morningside, George and Princess Street. Saw a number of birds as the tide was receding, mostly gulls, oyster catchers, herons, mallards, shags and some black swans. Enjoyed half hour of beach combing, I think much to Dexter's amazement. Visited their aquarium which is very small but entertaining. Much more of a teaching facility than tourist attraction, did experience a virtual deep dive in one of their trenches in a yellow sub. NZ has a number of very deep trenches just off shore which due to their depths have not been explored fully.

Continued on round to the Royal Albatross sanctuary at Taiaroa Head and for £20 had three quarters of an hour visiting the lookout area and the Armstrong disappearing gun emplacement. Apparently this site is the only land based nest site, all others are islands and is used constantly by both the Royal Albatross and the Steward Island shags.

Royal albatross is the largest of the worlds sea birds with a 3.3m wingspan. Comparing the size it is the same as a large turkey. They breed once every 2 years and take 12 months to rear a single chick. Once the juvenile chick leaves the nest, no time for any practice flight - just a quick launch off the nest site., they do not return to land for a full 5 years. They then take a further 4 years to find a mate, spending a couple of seasons building a nest with a new partner but not egg laying. They generally live for 30 to 40 years but due to their scavenging habits do get caught up with the trawling industry and killed.

Once out over the ocean they fly very close to the surface utilising the up drafts from the ocean swell and can reach speeds of 75mph. When they leave NZ they head for the fishing grounds of Chile and generally take 8 to 10 days. Birds have been tracked flying around Antarctica several times before coming back to NZ for mating. Solitary birds out at sea they will wait for their mate when on land and have been known to come back for a second breeding season in the hope that their mate will return, the guide said they believe the bird will mourn the loss of a mate and will take time to find another. The bird that lived to +60 had 4 mates, one she mated with over two separate periods. The guide believed that following the loss of mate nr 1, she took a new mate who was a younger bird but the relationship did not work. She then took mates 3 and 4 and reared chicks with them, but both died (causes unknown) before taking mate nr 2 back again and successfully rearing chicks. Talk about having a toy boy! The toy boy was called Buttons who now has a new mate and surprisingly as their chick died very young last year, came back this year and the result is above, a very healthy and fat chick.

Drove back to the hostel by the back roads, many un-surfaced and enjoyed some beautiful views of Papanui and Hoopers inlet. Passed an intact lime kiln on the way and tried to explain to Dexter what it was for as he has never seen one before.

Had great fun in the evening with Dexter, Jane and Yvonne. rather late night.