One thing that you notice in New Zealand is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of wildlife apart from birds. There are a lot of animals here for sure, the sheep outnumber people six to one. You can’t throw a rock without hitting a sheep, but as you drive the rural roads, you don’t see any wild deer, moose, or kangaroos. There is some incredible wildlife here, you just need to look to the shores. New Zealand is home to species of dolphins, seals, and penguins that are found only here.
A friend of yours?
In an area at the southern tip of the south island called The Catlins, we ventured to a spot where a few yellow eyed penguins are known to hang out. They stay out to sea during the day hunting and feeding, then come ashore around dusk to settle in for the night. This spot is just a public, rocky beach where anyone can go. There are no tickets or cafes or souvenir shops. Just a rope indicating a part of the beach where you are not allowed to go, and a park ranger who shows up around the same time as the penguins to make sure you don’t cross it. Just before dusk we were standing at the yellow rope with about 30 other people hoping to get our first glimpse at an aquatic avian in the wild. About 50 yards on the other side of the rope we could see a young penguin on the edge of the shrubs looking out towards the sea, no doubt waiting for his parents to return home with a stomach full of fish ready for regurgitation. As we stood there looking over the rope at the little guy in the distance, Jesslyn said to me, “hey everyone is looking the other way”. About 30 feet behind us a lone yellow eyed penguin had emerged from the sea, and started to make his way over the rocks towards the safety of the shrubs. It was awesome to see him so close, and made us chuckle to see how he waddled and hopped up onto and down from rocks. He seemed oblivious to our presence and allowed us to get some great pics.
A Yellow Eyed Penguin striking a pose for the paparazzi
Making his way up the beach
While in Dunedin, we ventured out onto the Otago Peninsula where we paid to get up close to the smallest penguins in the world, the Blue Penguin. They are wild penguins, and at one time there was no control to the access to view them. As you can imagine, they were harassed, blinded by camera flash, and even kidnapped. As a result, a private, not for profit organization controls access to the area around where they nest. As we waited to see the little flightless birds, we were lucky to see numerous Royal Albatross flying overhead, which are known for their enormous wingspans of over nine feet long.
A Royal Albatross with its distinctive long, narrow wings
The Blue Penguin experience was a bit different from the first one. There were many more spectators, and we were on a wooden platform. There were also many more birds, about 50 of them, coming out of the water in small groups called rafts. They emerged from the ocean when it was already dark outside, and some areas around the platform were lit so we could get a good look at them. The lights were small, dim, scattered about, and specially designed to emulate moonlight. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any great pics of them, which I will blame on the darkness, but I think I actually had the stabilization feature on my lens accidentally turned off. Similar to the Yellow Eyed, the Blues waddled and hopped their way up the rocky beach, then into the tall grass and shrubs on shore. They followed the leader, sometimes down a wrong turn before reversing direction and back on track to the nest. It was cool to see them, but the platform, lights, and other people somewhat detracted from the experience.
Four Blue Penguins making their way out of the water
One benefit of the artificial lights are the cool shadows
Back in the Catlins, we explored some out of the way beaches where there were very few people. At one particular beach, I was wading into the gentle surf looking for a better angle to take some pictures of the nearby cliffs, when I spotted a seal a little further down the beach who had just made his way out of the water. I started back towards the beach and yelled to Jesslyn. Because there had previously been some false seal sightings (one was a duck and another was a kid in a wetsuit) that we joked about, she didn’t believe me. After an emphatic re-assurance, she looked and spotted it too, then ran half a mile down the beach to let Knox and Sharon know. I was snapping away and approaching slowly as he walked up onto the beach. As cool as it is to see a penguin waddle, I get more of a kick out of the way seals walk. After getting about 50 yards away from the water, he just started to roll around, flip sand on top of himself, and try to get comfy for some rest. He seemed pretty indifferent to our presence and we had to warn Sharon not to get any closer. Upon a little more research, we believe this guy was actually a sea lion. It was an awesome experience because it was totally unexpected, and we were the only ones around.
A sea lion being very cooperative for the picture
Just trying to get comfy
We were very excited for the excursion we booked to swim with Hector’s Dolphins, the critically endangered and world’s smallest dolphins. We finally had some nice weather at Akaroa on Bank’s peninsula near Christchurch. The dolphins are completely wild and they are not fed, so there is always a fair chance of not seeing them. We were able to get up close to a few in the boat, but they didn’t stick around long enough for us to get in the water with them. Perhaps we will book another trip in Kaikoura where they offer swimming with Dusky Dolphins.
- Jake
PS: We are fairly current on our photos, so please check out all the new New Zealand pics we've added to our photo page.
PPS: Due to internet access constraints, we couldn't get this video of me doing the canyon swing up in time for the last post. The best part is Jesslyn's commentary.