Across the world: Dunedin

2 Oct - 5 Oct 2011

We left the quiet Catlin and came to this crowded town which was full of people coming for the Rugby game. It was the day when Ireland team was competing against French. Almost everyone was wearing green and it was hard to find a parking.

pic: The Octagon

Almost every BBH had no vacancy. Even if they had, the price was incredibly expensive. Some of them increased the rate for rugby game but it was not fair for us who was not travelling for the rugby game. We decided to stay a night at Otaga Peninsula which is not far from Dunedin.

We went to Otaga Peninsula for its wildlife too, including Royal Albertross, the smallest penguins and sea lions. At dusk, we went to somewhere near Pilot Beach for the Royal Albartross. Since we didn't want to pay, we stopped at the car park, paid 100% concentration looking at the sky, and searched for these large seabirds. Albatrosses are among the largest of flying birds. The wingspans of the largest great albatrosses can exceed 340cm.

Later, we went to Pilot Beach for the blue penguins. We walked through a rabbit farm before we reached the beach. Again, we did the stupid thing that we had not ever done in Malaysia. We waited at the beach for 1.5 hour to see the blue penguins swimming back from the sea. Unfortunately, we didn't see any except for one which was resting under a rock at the beach. When the sky got dark, we finally decided to leave. By then, we were cold and hungry. On our way to our car, we saw an old man working for Department of Conservation. Instead of going back to the hostel, we followed this old man back to the beach, hoping that he could help us in looking for the penguins.

Finally, we saw the little penguins walking from the beach to the farm. Then we realized that there were many pairs of penguins showing up in the rabbit farm. They had been hiding until the sky got dark.

The next morning, we went to Sandfly Bay. The bay is often thought by locals to have been named for a small biting insect known as the sandfly, but this is incorrect. It was named for the sand which, given the windy nature of this coast, flies from the tall dunes surrounding the bay. This was where we saw the seals.