Mating grounds for the Northern Royal Albatross are reason enough to visit New Zealand’s Otago Peninsula, but these grand birds are not the only attraction on a shore excursion from the cruise ship port of Dunedin.
Above a wide beach with rolling ocean surf, our tour group watched a single penguin (tiny, in the middle of the picture above) waddle to shore and cross the beach.
Then, as our group held its collective breaths, the penguin wavered in its decision about entering the mating grounds of the rare yellow eyed penguins. We could see a New Zealand fur seal hiding in the bush, hoping for a penguin lunch.
The penguin must have sensed something, because after making a few circles it returned to the surf.
Our group, off the cruise ship Celebrity Century, lined up single file in a viewing trench. We moved on, toward a hillock where we could see at least a dozen tiny, man-made penguin huts, each with a parent and offspring.
This reserve, called Penguin Place, is a mating ground for yellow eyed penguins, with a research program for rehabilitating sick or injured birds. There’s a lodge here for staying overnight.
New Zealand Fur Seals – not true fur seals as they have the ears of sea lions – also hang out near the penguin grounds, for obvious reasons.
Awaiting an invasion that never came
For military buffs, Taiaroa Head also is home to old Fort Taiaroa, built in the late 1800s to withstand an anticipated Russian invasion that never materialized.
The fort, hollowed into the headland, faces the sea with a hidden weapon, the world’s only fully restored six-inch Armstrong Disappearing gun, which sits beneath the mating grounds of the Northern Royal Albatross.
The weapon is quite a sight. Manufactured in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, it is mounted on a hydro-pneumatic carriage – aimed underground, raised, fired, and then returned underground to be reloaded.
Tour buses from Dunedin to the rolling, rocky, windswept hills of the Otago Peninsula – we could have been traveling in Scotland – often stop for lunch at Larnach Castle. The castle was built between 1873 and 1887, offers a tour that focuses on antiques, ghosts, a garden and family love stories.
David Molyneaux is editor of TheTravelMavens.com
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