February March

Wed Feb 25 2009: Penguins in Scotland!

We've got a rest day in Dunedin today. Actually, we're staying about 14 kms south-east of Dunedin, on a stretch of land called the Otago Peninsula. For the morning, we bike back to Dunedin to see a bit of the town. We've taken a great scenic route that runs atop a cliff overlooking the harbour of the peninsula. It's hard not to stop every few seconds to admire the view.


The high road view of Otago Peninsula. On our trips, I either have a helmet or a camera glued to my face. Sometimes both at the same time...


More views from the high road

When we get into Dunedin, we notice the distinctive architecture of some of the landmark buildings. We're told it was built to reflect the influence of the original Scottish immigrants who still make up quite a large portion of the city's population. I did notice a lot of red-haired folks walking around town. Also a lot of students attending the University of Otago. It's their frosh week, so we saw a few of them running around obviously on a scavenger hunt! The layout of the city is modeled after the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, and in fact, Dunedin's name comes from Důn Čideann, the Gaelic name for Edinburgh,


Special free parking spots for two-wheeled vehicles. I measured and the scooter on the left will fit in one of my sidebags.


Downtown Dunedin

Tell you the truth, it's not a terribly exciting city, apart from a couple of landmark buildings, like the railway station and the First Church. They are trying to build up it's tourist attractions by adding things like the Chinese Gardens, designed and constructed in Shanghai and painstakingly moved to Dunedin, piece by piece. It was very pretty, but seemed out of place in this predominantly western European settlement. If there were a lot of Chinese folk running around in Dunedin (like in Toronto, or San Francisco), I would understand, but I think I doubled the Asian population when I rolled into town yesterday...


Chinese Gardens. I actually didn't go in, I waited outside for Neda.
Every house I've lived in has had a Chinese Garden. In Chinese, it's pronounced, "Bak Yad".


While we're on the subject, here's the subtitle for this picture:
"Chinese Restaurants. Failing Health Code Standards on every continent"

In fact, this sparked a long conversation between Neda and I about the reason why we travel, and what we expect to see on our trips. It seems that the native and historical culture of the Maoris in New Zealand have been lost as the Western European influence spread across the country. We compare this trip to the one we took in Hawaii, and the Americans have made a lot of effort to integrate Polynesian culture and language into everyday life, even turning it into a tourist draw. "Aloha" and "Mahola" are used in daily exchanges, by both island-born and recent arrivals. By contrast, "Kia Ora" was the name of Air New Zealand's in-flight magazine. I haven't seen or heard it once in the last week and a half. The Maori influence on NZ culture seems pretty insignificant.


Dunedin Railway Station

It was ironic because we were approached by a couple of university students who were conducting a survey in the Railway Station. They were polling tourists of their perception of Maori culture in Dunedin - namely none. They were doing this to petition the Dunedin city council to provide more funding for fostering and promoting Maori cultural attractions. Seems to make more sense than erecting a Chinese Garden for the three Asians that live in Dunedin.


University student conducting survey. I can tell from this picture that Neda is making shit up just to screw with them.

Part of the reason why we travel is to discover and experience new and different cultures. We like to learn how they live, how they speak, what they eat, etc. NZ has disappointed us in this regard. Our meals are exactly what you would find in any North American restaurant, maybe a bit more seafood and lamb. This trip, and all others before, has helped to define what we look for when we travel, and I think our future plans will be for a more exotic experience.

Sorry for the political rant, back to the travelog...


Our goal in Dunedin was to find a Scottish restaurant and eat some Haggis. I have no idea what
Haggis is, but it didn't matter because the closest thing we found was a meat stew in Guiness
sauce in an Irish pub. Scottish, Irish, same thing, right...?

What we do enjoy about NZ is the landscape and the motorcycle roads. While Dunedin bored us, the Otago Peninsula was a delight for learning about the geography and the flora and fauna of the land. Originally, this finger of land that stretches eastwards to the sea was predominantly farmland, but now the area caters to tourists that flock to see birds and animals that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Our primary objective today is to see the rare and endangered yellow-eyed penguin.


Riding around Otago Peninsula, very narrow roads!

We ride back to Otago Peninsula on a very narrow, twisty road that some locals liken to the Isle of Man TT course, it runs right along the edge of the water and one wrong move could put you and your motorcycle in the drink. It's so narrow that a tour bus coming around the corner in the opposite direction almost clips one of my sidebags as he crossed the centre line! We take the apex of each blind corner very wide after this close call.


View of the road leading up to the Albatross Observatory

We have some time before our appointment with the penguins, so we ride out to the very tip of Otago Peninsula to the Albatross Observatory, where you can view the long-winged Royal Albatross float on the strong winds just off the coast. They look like seagulls, except with wings 4X longer. And they rarely flap their wings, this way they can glide on the breezes of the sea for hundreds of miles without tiring. They look like Boeing jets from below!


Royal Albatross flying against the backdrop of the Albatross Observatory at the very tip of the Otago Peninsula


If you think this picture is impressive, you should see one live flying a few feet above you. This one is 10 feet wide!

In the late afternoon, we ride to Penguin Place, run by a Peninsula farmer who has dedicated a portion of his land to preserving and growing the population of the endangered yellow-eyed penguin. Only about 3000-4000 exist and they only live in the south-eastern shores of the South Island and the sub antarctic islands below NZ. The money that tourists bring to the Penguin Place goes towards planting the native trees that have previously been cut down by farmers. These trees had provided natural shelter and breeding grounds for the yellow-eyed penguin, and the destruction of the habitat partly contributed to the decline in the penguin population.

The Penguin Place has quite an interesting setup, they don't want to disturb or scare the penguins away, so they've built a system of covered trenches that hide tourists from the penguins. The viewing areas have slats which open up at ground level where you can see them, but all they see is your face or the lens of a camera, and you appear smaller than they are, so they don't feel threatened.


System of covered trenches at Penguin Place. The bluish posts are actually sleeves for the native trees that have been re-planted with the help of tourist fees. These trees take 50 years to grow to it's mature height, so it is a long-term project.


Walking through one of the trenches. No flash is allowed as it bothers the
sensitive eyes of the penguins, so this is a walking shot sans flash.


Looking out through the slats of one of the viewing areas in the trenches. I told you, that camera is surgically implanted to my face.


The rare and endanged Yellow-Eyed Penguin. I need to invest in a zoom lens. These little guys are about knee-high.


They are CUTE! It's moulting season for them right now, so a lot of them are just standing around waiting for their feathers to shed.


The Penguin Place also offered fantastic views of the north shore of Otago Peninsula

Weather was great for today, it only rained on us once! Still a bit cold though, and the forecast doesn't appear to be any different for tomorrow. Wow, this was a long entry. Hopefully pictures of the cute penguins were worth it...


Here's the best shot I have of the Yellow-Eyed Penguin.

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