Tuesday Feb 9, 2010 – Otago Peninsula

After lunch we headed up to the top of the peninsula, Taiaroa Head. After reserving for the Monarch cruise, we headed up the road to the Albatross Centre. We decided to do the albatross viewing tour. It started with a movie about the bird. Albatrosses mate for life. They spent the first year with their parents. They eat so much and get so fat that they can't fly. The parents then put them on a diet. Only feeding them every other day to start then go longer between feedings. They also start standing further and further from the nest so the young get some exercise. After they are kicked out of the nest they go to sea for about 5 years. They return as juveniles looking for mates. This usually takes about 2 years. After finding a mate they go to sea for another year at the end of which they reunite and breed. Only one egg is laid and it is incubated for 79 days. Both parents look after the egg and chicks. After the year the parents go out to sea for a vacation from each other for a year. They come back together to breed again.

They are beautiful birds that have a wing span of 3m, can fly up to 100k/h and may travel 4 million km during a 45 year span. This colony of Albatross is the only ones that breed on the main land. Most breed on small islands.

At 4:30 we headed out on the cruise. Now we see the headlands from the sea. We saw a few albatrosses soaring above us. Many of them were changing with their partner on land. As we headed out we saw Shags, White Faced Heron, Royal Spoonbills, a Fiordland Crested Penguin, and Fur Seals. We saw two types of albatross at sea as well.

We went out this evening to see if we could see the blue penguin come ashore. It was overcast. The rain started just as the penguins came ashore. They are quite small and hard to see. Three groups came ashore while we watched. Once they get to the rocks I could no longer see them. We did not stay much longer as it was dark and rainy. They climb up the rocks on shore and continue up further to their burrows. It was fun to watch them come to shore. They look like a black cloud coming across the water.