New Zealand - Arrowtown and Dunedin

The weather wasn't predicted to be very cooperative on our second full day so we decided to stay more local. The pass over Cardrona Range was open - yes, it snowed, but not too much - so we headed to Arrowtown. Arrowtown is an old town - like 100 years older than me which means it's nearing relic-hood. Arrowtown, next to the surprisingly named Arrow River, was sort of the gold mining hub for the big piles of gold that were found in the gold rush years. Arrowtown is now a nice town of shops and restaurants. We checked out their "stuff" and then started scoping out places for lunch.

We ended up choosing "The Stables". Much to Amber's and A.J.'s delight, they had WiFi. Now would be a good time to retract my "WiFi junkie" label of the previous post. I have been admonished for overstating the reality. We ended up eating upstairs and had a lovely lunch in the hay loft.

We then went by the famous bungy place. We watched someone jump and decided it looked like fun, but we'll never know if we'd have actually done it or not because it was just too dear at around $200 a jump.

We headed off and checked out another old town, Cromwell, on the way back to Wanaka. It was along a man-made lake. Like they need another lake on the South Island! Yeah, well, maybe hydroelectricity makes more sense.

After getting back to Wanaka we did our "advance" planning for the next day. We quickly realized there were no more "close" destinations much to the dismay of our excellent driver, Mr. Eric. In spite of that, we decided Dunedin and the royal albatrosses were a must see. One sleep and a four hour drive later, we rolled into Dunedin and worked our way up the Otago Peninsula to the Royal Albatross Colony. The time of year we were visiting meant we might not get to see any in flight, but soon after we hit the car park we saw one in the distance so we were greatly encouraged. They have unmistakably huge wings. That happens when your wingspan is around 10 feet. Yes, 10 feet! That's some serious wow factor!

To be most exact about what I was crossing off the "cool critter in the wild list" would be the hybrid northern royal albatross entry. Hybrid because they have a little southern royal albatross mixed in (just who was that ancestor with the wandering eyes?!). What I find equally entertaining is the northern royal albatrosses live only about as far north as the rest of us down under dwellers. North is clearly quite relative.

We did the tour and got to see the albatrosses a lot closer up. Eric tried to get a bit too close to investigate a picture behind some display glass and bonked his nose on it. No big deal except it also made quite the bonk noise which stopped the tour guide in mid-sentence. All eyes swung to him and Eric did all one can do in that situation, shrug and give them your best sheepish smile. Oh, if only I'd had the camera at the ready for that moment! He did the best sheepish grin ever! Yep, we got a lot of mileage out of that one. Since he's my favorite, I will say it was clearly caused by the effect of all that driving on his vision.

Speaking of vision, we also got to see a few more critters that I went ahead and added to my list. New Zealand fur seals and spotted shags are also southern hemisphere dwellers. The spotted shag (also called a Parekareka if you like syllabic challenges) is a type of cormorant only found in New Zealand. Wow, it's like a gold mine of cool critters! The light wasn't so hot so the picture just doesn't do them justice.

There were also blue (fairy) penguins on that peninsula, but like Tasmania, the penguins don't head for shore until dark and waiting for them would make the day way too long. Reluctantly we headed back while I consoled myself that I'd already seen fairy penguins in the wild. That and I'd crossed three things off the critter list in one day! Yes, it was a good day!