Site Report: Otago Peninsula / Dunedin, New Zealand

Visits

• 2012-01-13: In Dunedin, we woke up to find that it was raining. It seems like this is a common event in these parts, but fortunately, the rain stopped before our planned trip to the Otago Peninsula. We has reservations to see the Royal Albatross colony as well as some kind of Yellow-eyed Penguin experience complete with WWI style trenches. The brochures in town all promised shorebirds on the peninsula. There were some birds out there, but I had been hoping for sandpipers. Instead, there were a lot of stilts and oystercatchers. We drove out to the albatross center where we had a private tour of the blind. It seems like the earlier rain had chased everyone else away. The center was good, but it was a little disappointing that the birds were behind a thick glass. We could not hear the cool sounds that they make. The penguin battlefield was more of a close encounter. We saw and smelled a bunch of Yellow-eyed penguins. Back in Dunedin, the party scene was really kicking up. Cars cruised down the strip full of young New Zealanders wearing their finest cowboy hats and playing John Cougar full blast. We finished up our trip with a visit to Baldwin Street which is said to be the World's steepest street. Upon my visit, however, I can say that this claim is fraud. There is one small portion of the street that is especially steep, and it does not compare to many of the steep streets in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and from what I hear, Pittsburgh in the USA.

Species Seen

Lifelists

• Australasia
• World

Trips

• New Zealand