Day 14: Riding out along the Otago Peninsula

Had a great sleep so was raring to go.  The weather was totally overcast and looking like rain.  But the Boss reckoned it wouldn’t rain so Maggie and me set off down the road to Portobello.

Harbour Mouth Molars by Regan Gentry

It is a really lovely ride, hugging the foreshore with the hills soaring up alongside, dotted with suburban homes and later farm houses and holiday cottages.

 Little boat sheds, all showing their ages, stood on tip toes in the water – some were decorated and painted with murals, others were sadly weathering away, unloved.

Saw flocks of cormorant, shag and sea gulls heading out to sea for a day’s fishing and pied and black oyster catchers poking along the foreshore, looking for treats.


Also saw white faced herons, black backed gulls as well as the usual sea gulls, even a couple of spoonbills.  At one boat shed there was an array of cormorants.  

Cormorants aplenty

Saw also the little fantail – Piwakawaka and plenty of tweetering but mainly from sparrows and probably silver-eyes.
I thought I might puff up the hill to the Larnach Castle, but got not even quarter of the way up and decided I liked going down better and who wants to see another castle when you’ve already been to Savonlinna… So that jaunt was aborted and a speedy return to the main road.

Up another little pinch, I saw a sign saying Botanical Artist – Open – so I thought I would take a breather and check out the gallery.  Well, it was in the front room of a very talkative woman, so we had a good gab and I chose 2 very nice sketches, which she will post over for me.   What a wonderful place she lived in – nothing flash, but with a wide window looking over the bay - peace and quiet all around.  Sometimes I wonder if people living like this really understand how lucky they are!

When I rolled into Portobello I stopped at the Penguin Café and ordered a Roast Vegie Salad with a cheese scone.  Very yummy.

Main Road, Portobello

I really wasn’t being that serious about getting places so it was just before 3 that I eventually got to the colony and the afternoon clouds were beginning to roll in.  First I went down the path to see only some lazy seals and heaps of gulls.

Slack sea lion

Then I walked over behind the carpark, but again, no Albatross.

beds of kelp swirling in the tide

So thought I will just have to go up to the centre and check out what’s the deal with these Albatross. 

Taiaroa Point - Albatross Colony

Well, the deal is, if you pay some money - $40 for 60min tour – you will definitely see Albatross.  Otherwise you won’t.  Well, I didn’t pedal all this way out not to see Albatross, so out with the credit card and pay the man – tour starting at 3:30. 

Our guide gave a very informative talk about the beginnings of the colony, with one nesting pair arriving  in 1920.  But it wasn’t until 1938 that an egg was successfully able to fledge, due to interference by people and feral animals.  Dr LE Richdale had camped out with his tent right next to the nest and kept ferals and people away.  By 1951 (what a good year that was) the colony had a full time protector and the colony has been managed since that time.  We walked up the hill to the hide and were able to see three adults with their chicks.  One nest was quite close and the parent was training her fluffy white chick to cope with being left alone for days while the parents fished for its food.  She was sitting a little away from the rather large fluffy young.

That's it - the white dots are the adult with young
thankfully I had my binocs and were able to get a good look!

The other adult had a small chick briefly spied and the third nest was only just visible down from the hide but I never really got a good view of that.  Apparently there are 26 nests this season scattered around the headland – which is a record and they believe there are about 200 albatross that now use this area as their preferred nesting area.  So it was a very informative tour. 

But I also wanted to see the penguins, so just after 4:30 I pedalled off to the Penguin Place. I was informed that a tour would be leaving in 15 mins and that it would go for 90mins and that it cost $49….  Good old credit card – its not real money anyway….  I was doing some quick time calculations and thinking that its still sorta daylight at 9pm, so I should be right to get back to the YHA…

Once again, an informative talk on how this colony began – basically farmers McGrouther have set aside this area within their farmlands as a Penguin conservation area and all funds are raised by visiting tourists, so we all felt good about paying the fee.  Well, the penguins were there first, but....

Young rescued chicks just about fledged - these were in the hospital
having been rescued when their parents had mysteriously
died - about 65 out of known 1000 birds along the coast -
very worrying as no cause as yet found. 

These Yellow-eyed Penguins are endemic to New Zealand and there only a 1000 remaining along the south east coast below Christchurch and a few more 1000 on a couple of islands out towards the Antarctic.

Room with a view - Little Blue Penguins in constructed burrows
that don't collapse when sheep run over them.

"I can't see them, so they can't see me!"

There were also Little Blue Penguins, their young peeping out of their apartments.

The numbers of the Yellow-eyed penguins in the viewing area is very low at the moment – with all but one of the chicks fully fledged and left.

"I don't want to go out to that big big ocean and chase fish all day!"
the last of this year's chicks hanging onto terra firma

There were 3 standing around forlornly in various stages of moulting and one adult had decided he was full enough today and didn't need to go fishing.

Moulting trio - other adult around behind the bush!

 There was one other penguin further up the track also in a state of moult and that was it.

Don't photo me now, wait till I get my new feathers!

The viewing area consists of trenches that are covered, so people can walk around to the various hides under cover.  The hides give only a small area for viewing close to the ground, thus not threatening the penguins.

Walking along the trench

Of course I hadn’t take the bigger lens for my camera, so wasn’t able to get good photos, but I will remember it anyways.

So then it was on ya bike for some serious pedalling to get back to Dunedin before dark. There wasn’t so much traffic and the hills were smaller on the way back ??? and I didn’t have to get off and walk any of them. 

So a fun day out and about.  Stats:  68km, average 19.4kph (serious riding home) and max of 51.1kph, probably retreating from the Castle!

My total for this trip has been only 446km – so I have really been taking it easy.  But its been a fun pedal all the same – with a wide variety of experiences, from dry desert, rocky rail trail, the ride beside Lake Dunstan to the sheep farm at Smallburn.  Then onto Wanaka and then the pedal towards the Crown Range (and a ride in a ute) to the whooping down the Crown Range into Queenstown, topped off by a tour of the Milford Sound and a freakin ride in a helicopter and ending it all with a ride out along the Otago peninsular.  Not a bad holiday at all.