The night of the 5th I slept like the dead. I woke up at about 7:30am, had breakfast and used the phone to call Kaikoura. The whale watch tour lets you cancel at the last possible second and get a full refund! That just rocks.

We headed down to the city and wandered around for awhile. I put a few dents in my Christmas shopping. We went to an internet cafe for an hour or so. Dunedin had lots of pretty churches, and like your typical college town was built on an incredibly steep hill. I liked the city, it was well organized and not overly crowded with people.

We hiked back to the hostel early in the afternoon. I paid for our rooms and hopped on the internet again to try and finish my blogging (I didn’t). Then the phone was available so I called mommy and Justin!

At about 3:30pm we left on our tour of the Otago Peninsula. Elm Wildlife Tours picked us up and took us to Taiaroa Head, where we got to see Royal Albatross! We paid the extra $30 to take the tour up to the viewing platform where they were nesting. Not only were they flying around right by us, but we got to see about 6 birds incubating eggs. Mostly they just sat there and slept, but one was walking around, one sat up and preened a bit, and one pair switched over while we were there. The oldest birds nesting were in their mid-30’s, and the youngest were 9. The juvys also hang out and socialize to eventually form pair bonds. There was also a colony of Stewart Island Shags feeding chicks just below the albatross colony.

We then drove to a farm and walked past lots and lots of sheep and down some very big hills. At the bottom we saw Yellow-eyed Penguins! They were right in the path and walked towards us - they were only about 15 ft away. One was an adult and the other a juvy (less yellow around the eyes) and they stood and posed/preened for us. We took a trail around them and went down to the beach to see NZ Sea Lions. The males get together in pairs and have ‘practice’ homosexual relationships (there aren’t any females around this time of year), so we saw an older male with a younger one lying together on the beach, asleep. There was also a small fur seal, apparently the sea lions will eat the fur seals sometimes.

At the other end of the beach they had hides set up that we could view more penguins from. We saw them heading up from the beach to their little burrows, which were really high up on the hills. They were rock-climbing penguins! The one we watched would look at the step and think… think… hop! So cute.

Then we hiked to another hide at the top of the hill and saw pengins nesting. They were feeding huge fat fluffy brown chicks! There was a nest camera set up but you could see several burrows from the viewing hide. The penguins usually lay 2 eggs so there were often two chicks (if there’s enough food they’ll fledge two). And the parent penguin was preening fluffy baby penguin. There was also a burrow right next to the hide - we could see the parent and chicks through the bushes. The penguins wouldn’t need burrows except the chicks don’t have their waterproof feathers when they hatch. There were also some juvys hanging around.

The DOC, farmers, and tour company give both the penguins and albatross a lot of help. If the penguins’ nest is abandoned they find foster parents for the eggs. Trapping is a given. With the albatross they handle the chicks from day 1 - albatross have no fear of humans, but sometimes the chicks get nervous so tehy want them to get used to being handled. This way they can weigh, band, and measure the bird without trouble. They also have a fostering program, they place eggs filled with wax (because they heat up when the bird sits on them) under a parent if its real egg dies. That way the parent can raise a foster baby if something happens to another parent. There’s also a sprinkler system so that the nesting birds don’t overheat. There were only about 60 birds breeding at Taiaroa Head (~20 nonbreeding) and all of this is done to sustain the population for related tourism. I guess natural selection isn’t as important as tourist dollars these days?

Next we walked back up the big hill and then down the other side. The sheep were nicely lit since the sun was going down so I finally took a gratuitous NZ sheep photo. The fur seals we saw had little black pups that made loud silly noises. Some of the males were injured from fighting. There was a Black-backed Gull nest with eggs in it, and another down below that had chicks. We saw a lot of chicks today, there were Pied Stilts, Pukekos, and Paradise Shelducks with broods earlier in the day.

From the fur seal viewing point we saw Shy Mollymawk, Northern Giant-Petrel, Sooty Shearwater, and Dusky Dolphins! The dolphins were leaping out of the water and doing flips and acrobatics. They may have been feeding on a big ball of fish.

That was an awesome tour! We got back late around 9:30pm, I made soup and packed up for the next morning. Was very, very tired.

The next morning we got up at 6:45am (ughhhh…) to catch our 7:45am Intercity bus to Christchurch. The guy from the hostel was awesome and gave us a ride to the bus stop, which was really far from the hostel. The ride from Dunedin to Christchurch was about 6 horus, with stops on the way (I had lasagna at a cafe for lunch).

In NZ, bus drivers are also mailmen. They stop at locations along their route and drop off mail or newspapers all the time. Even tour bus operators do this.

We arrived in Christchurch at about 1:45pm. Our bus for Kaikoura didn’t leave until 4, so we left our luggage at the dropt and wandered around the main square for a few hours. I did some xmas shopping and we had bagels for lunch.

The bus rides were pretty boring, I didn’t even see that many birds (though I was exhausted). We got to Kaikoura a little before 7pm. The hostel screwed up our booking and then tried to put us in a room that had people in it but wasn’t supposed to…. and we wound up getting a friggin’ sweet ensuite twin upstairs, complete with tea and TV. We went to the grocery store, bought and ate dinner, took showers and then crashed early.

I put my motion sick patch on before bed. It stung a very, very tiny bit and it made me a little dizzy by the morning, but otherwise it was ok. Operation of all large motorized vehicles was delegated to Vanessa for the day.

Anyway, we got up at 5:15 am. I’m getting bags under my eyes from lack of sleep. We had to walk a really long way to the tour company, but we made it by about 6am. We were the only ones on the tour, which was awesome. The boat we went out on was pretty small, and although the water looked nice and calm from the bay it was actually pretty shoppy. There was a little bit of wind and rain as well, but nothing too bad.

We saw a Northern Giant Petrel eating a dead Hutton’s Shearwater. The skipper took us out to three places (different distances from shore and different depths - there’s an offshore canyon at Kaikoura). At each one we’d stop and wait for stuff to land, and we’d throw out an ice block of chum. One of the first birds to arrive each time was Albert the Wandering Albatross (apparently he’s a regular). There were also tons of Cape Pigeons, and plenty of Northern Giant Petrels, Hutton’s Shearwaters, and Westland Petrels. The birds were so close to the boat that you didn’t need binoculars to ID them. Albatrosses that came in were Royals, Black-browed, NZ White-capped, and Salvin’s. The Salvin’s were really pretty, they had grey heads. We saw one Southern Giant Petrel (they have a greenish tip to the bill instead of grey), some White-chinned Petrels, some Buller’s Shearwaters, Flesh-footed Shearwaters, and even some Short-tailed Shearwaters (they look like Sootys, only smaller). Total there were 9 lifers plus one lifer subspecies.

And the best part? My motion sickness patch WORKED!!! I got to watch birdies instead of spending the whole time retching!! It was just awesome, yay!!

I tried to take lots of pictures of the birdies, but not very many came out in focus (boats, like, move a lot. So do birdies). It was so cool to have everything come that close to the boat though.

Since our bid book was published the Mollymawks have been assigned their own genus (Thalassarche) and Shy Mollymawk now has separate species for NZ White-capped and Salvin’s.

After at least 4 stops to watch birds (we also stopped at a fishing boat) we headed back in. Our guide was great, he knew all of the species and subspecies and was excellent at soptting things. The company gave us a 10% off coupon for their gift shop for doing the tour.

We wandered around town and headed over to the Whale Watch company. They were nice and double-booked us just in case our tour didn’t run the next day (the weather looked iffy). Considering how much of my money they’re getting I’m really glad they have good customer service.

At the hostel we ate lunch and went online. I took care of a bunch of logistical stuffs. Then Vanessa fell asleep and I went shopping, I bought some xmas presents and a t-shirt for myself. Nothing much exciting happened for the rest of the day.

The next morning we got up at 6:30am and walked to the Whale Watch office for out 7:15am report time. Unfortunately the tour was cancelled due to weather, but since we were double booked for the next day we just have to wait until then.

We walked back to the hostel and ate breakfast. I went back to bed, I didn’t really sleep but it felt good to close my eyes for a few extra horus. The motion patch made my eyes really dry and itchy. This combined with sleep deprivation meant I looked like utter crap.

It rained a lot for the rest of the morning. When it let up a bit we walked into town. I bought another xmas present and bought myself a really nice, expensive hookie. Vanessa had some problems with her credit card and couldn’t buy anything so we went back to the hostel again. I went online for awhile and then called mommy. We went in the hostel’s jacuzzi later in the afternoon (yes, in the rain), and spent the evening watching news.

The whale watching tour went out the next morning! We even got a ride to their office with some nice people staying at our hostel. The tour left at 7:45am and we were back by 10:30. There were probably 30 or 40 people on our boat (there was plenty of space for everyone to watch whales from the railings). They made us sit inside the boat’s cabin while in transit, there were comfortable cushy chairs that all faced forward. The water was really rough, the boat kept getting air and dropping over the large swells. As you can imagine this was a bit hard on the stomach. My motion patch helped but either the rough ride was too much or it was less effective on the third day (it’s supposed to last 72 hours), but I wound up barfing. I wasn’t the only one, most of the people on the boat were feeling some degree of discomfort, and many threw up. Fortunately the only thing in my stomach was a banana (smart, smart Robin). It didn’t impeded my whale watching though, I felt well enough to go out on deck each time we spotted a whale.

The sperm whales were all solitary, and all male. There aren’t any females at Kaikoura because the water’s too cold, and the males have a thicker bllubber layer than the females do. The reason there’s so much marine life in general is because there’s an offshore canyon, which provies an all-you-can-eat smorgasboard (a lot like Monterey). We saw 3 whales, they sat at the surface for about 10 minutes, and we could see their heads from their blowholes to their dorsal fins. Eventually they’d duck under water and dive, showing us their tails on the way down. They usually stay down for around 45 minutes, but can stay down longer than 2 hours.

We also saw a pod of Dusky Dolphins. They were everywhere around the boat, many were leaping out of the water. They swam right up to us, too. For some reason I seem to like seeing the dolphins better than the whales. Dolphins are just too cool.

On the morning of the 28th we were very tired. We got up at 6:45am so we could pack and turn in our key. And we had to walk for more than 20 minutes to get to the bus stop (in the cold, of course). Our Intercity bus left Te Anau at 8am. It was a double-decker bus (we sat on top). We saw lots of birds on the road. We had a transfer in Gore, where we headed south to Invercargill. Our hostel was a short hike from the i-Site. It was a really nice hostel, in a little house and with a friendly owner.

We walked to the internet cafe and went online for 2 hours. I checked my e-mail and blogged (marathon blog entry!) and did other logistical things. I had our photos backed up on DVD while we went to Hell’s pizza for lunch. Their veggie pasta was really good, but the serving size was really small.

After that we went to the grocery store, and the post office. I mailed some postcards, and the stupid ATM gave me $300 in 10’s. We dropped off our groceries at the hostel and went to the Southland Museum and Art Gallery. Vanessa got to hold a Tuatara and meet Lindsay Hazley, and I did some xmas shopping. We also asked about Stewart Island activities.

We spent the evening talking with some Dutch travelers in the hostel. I hopped on the computer - The Brown Kiwi said that I could have my replacement bird prints sent there! Yay!!!

That night I slept really well. Our hostel was awesome, it was really quiet and the bed was fairly comfortable. I had a chocolate muffin for breakfast (yum!) and hopped on the computer for a few minutes. We left the hostel early with our packs loaded down with groceries, and waited at the i-Site for about an horu before our bus came. Campbeltown Passenger Service took us to Bluff (~20-30 min) where we checked in for the ferry. We were really lucky, the previous day the weather had been so bad they’d had to cancel, but that day was fine.

Vanessa and I stood out the back of the ferry in the rain with our binoculars identifying bird species like total dweebs. I saw a juvenile Shy Mollymawk and lots of Common Diving Petrels. There were also sea lions, one came really close to the boat.

Our socks and jeans were soaked by the time we got to the hostel. The place was ok, kind of big, but the rooms had shelves and heaters. There were Kaka (parrots. loud ones.) everywhere outside.

We went over to the DOC for info on local walks, and checked out the shops in town (yay, progress with xmas shopping!). Then I went through my pack and organized everything, as it had gotten knid of messy over the past few days. Had cheesy pasta for dinner and took a hot shower.

Kiwi food isn’t as good as American food. Their pizzas especially, they’re too small and have weird toppings. But with meals at reasturants you never get enough to eat, and they charge you too much for the small portions.

The next morning I was awakened by children and parrots. The two have more similarities than one might think.

After breakfast we decided to go hiking. We walked from Bragg Bay to Horseshoe Bay via Horseshoe Point. It was about 3.5 km and very easy, but we walked slowly because Vanessa’s knees were hurting (I think I broke her on this trip) and because I was diligently searching for Stewart Island Shags. There were lots of Dunnock and Redpolls along the way. It was mostly sunny, but with intermittant rain, so I tried to take some pictures of the pretty coves and beaches.

Horseshoe Point was an awesome birding spot. I found a Stewart Island (SI) Shag in the water, it looked like a miniature loon. We got really close looks at Shy Mollymawks as they followed the fishing boats that passed just udnerneath us. There were lots of Spotted Shags around as well, and lots of gulls harassing the fishing boats. There were several Red-crowned Parakeets in the bush along the trail. And the Tuis were as thick as the sandflies in Fiordland.

We hiked back from Horseshoe Bay and stopped for groceries. I went over to the DOC and checked the weather, since it was supposed to be sunny on Friday I booked a water taxi to Ulva Island.

I was exhausted and spent most of the evening trying not to fall asleep.

The next morning I was awakened by scuba divers who liked to slam doors at 6:30am. Do people learn manners anymore?

We hiked over the hill to catch our water taxi (Seabuzzz) at 9am. From Golden Bay it was about a 5 min ride to Ulva Island. The island is free of rats (all of SI is free of mustelids) and there are populations of Saddlebacks, NZ Robins, and Yellowheads on the island (unfortunately we were skunked by the Yellowheads again). Other birds we saw were Red- and Yellow-crowned parakeets, Kaka, Bellbird, SI Shag, and finally some nice looks at Brown Creeper. There were also Blue Penguins in the water offshore and penguin tracks in the sand on the beaches.

Every time we stopped or sat down we were harassed by Weka. I think they have radars for detecting people with snacks. One tried to jump in my lap and wound up sitting on the bench with us trying to reach across our laps to steal our biscuits. We got great photos of them by rattling a plastic wrapper - they come trotting right up when they hear that sound. One also hopped on our picnic table and tried to steal my peanuts. They certainly are persistant.

There were SI Shags along the coast - I got some nice looks at them on land and in the water. I spent lots of time with my head craned looking for Mohua, but without any luck. There were parrots absolutely everywhere, the Kaka liked to rip bark off of trees to look for bugs.

I think SI may have been formed by volcanic activity, instead of by glaciers like the south of Fiordland. There were tons of volcanic rocks there.

It started raining around lunchtime, and we were getting rather cold and wet so we headed back to the beach and hid under the shelter for awhile.

The track on the island was well-maintained and easy. There was lots of native fern and rimu forest, and some endangered plant species. All of the endangered birds on the island were banded - even the young ones.

Our water taxi picked us up at 3pm. We walked up to Observation Rock and stopped at a gallery called the Fernery - they had a really nice collection of art I couldn’t afford. I bought something small, I wish some of their art prints hadn’t been so expensive though. One artist I liked was Mary Taylor, hopefully I can look her up online later.

The lady at reception at our hostel let us swap rooms!! This was happy because after the children moved out, the NZ army moved in. My got they were loud. Vanessa was feeling sick and wanted to sleep all evening. I slept well (but I slept well most of the nights we were there).

In the morning I mailed some postcards and changed our ferry reservation to a day earlier. We decided to stay at Southern Comfort again on Dec 4th because it was nice and quiet there. That should make the morning of the 5th less stressful and let us get more sleep, too. I couldn’t reach the bus company though, so I was crossing my fingers that we could still get a ride.

Since Vanessa wasn’t feeling well I went hiking alone. I walked along the Ryan’s Creek Track, which took about 4 horus. The first part was failry easy and I saw lots of birdies (mainly Tui, Bellbird, and Tomtit). Once the track reached the coast though it turned to pure mud. My boots were caked, as were my last pair of clean-ish pants. There were some shags in the water but I didn’t see as many birds after that. It was a pretty hike - through ferns and native forest.

I went into town again after I got back. Apparently there had been a sea lion in town chasing people around the pub and the post office, but I didn’t see him. I made lunch, this took awhile because the army guys and the group of 8 Israelis all had kitchen monopolization problems. I wouldn’t say the hostel was worse than the one at Te Anau, but I was glad we cut our stay short.

On the 3rd we did nothing. I started at the wall for most of the afternoon. This was punctuated by periodic visits to the kitchen, but for the entirety of the morning and afternoon I was bored out of my mind. We did RP a little - we’re on our second book now.

At about 7pm we headed out to Ackers Point. At dusk the Blue Penguins and Muttonbirds (Sooty Shearwaters) came in to their burrows, and we wanted to see them. It was an easy 90-min walk out to the point.

We saw lots of pelagic birds before the sun went down. There were lots of Shy Mollymawk, some Whilte-fronted Terns and Spotted Shags, a few SI Shags, Sootys, and Blue Penguins, and one Cape Pigeon. Yay, lifer!

We listened for Kiwi on the way back, but didn’t hear any. We did see a possum, a rat, and some other strange introduced mammal thing that ran very fast. And bats! And the moon was nearly full, it was so bright we could see our shadows. It was still light enough to see without a headlamp when we got back at 11pm. It will be nice to have short, normal-length days again soon.

On the morning of the 4th we stayed in bed until after 9am. I was tired. We had to be out of the room by 10am though, so we got up and packed.

Most of the time between then and our ferry departure (3:30pm) was spent in the hostel lounge RP’ing. The army guys were all there watching TV, of course. I made pasta for lunch. so I wouldn’t have to carry the extra pasta jar.

The seas on the ferry were really rough. Not anticipating this I didn’t take my meds, and wound up throwing up. That was fun. The crew on the boat was on the ball about it though, they had towels and extra bags ready for me (yes, I made the bag). Fortunately the ferry ride was only an hour so it was over quickly.

There was no problem with the bus and we were dropped off right at our hostel. We met a bontanist from Newfoundland on the ride who told me a little about NZ tree ferns (that’s where the silver fern comes from).

I still felt sick when we arrived and I severely needed food so I cooked myself something to eat while Vanessa went grocery shopping. I hopped on the internet for a few minutes as well. Then I washed some laundry, although everything we own was dirty and the washer was really small so we’re going to have to wash stuff again soon.

Neither of us slept well that night. I had a combination of stomach uckiness and too much pent-up energy from doing nothing all day. I finally fell asleep, but it was really really late.

I got up at about 9am. We’d elected to hang our clothes to dry in the room instead of paying for a dryer, and of course they hadn’t finished drying yet. I packed and had toast and tea for breakfast. We headed over to the i-Site at about 10am, and our tour bus (the Catlins Coaster) left around 10:30.

The tour took us to Dunedin via the Southern Scenic Route through the Catlins. There were only 4 of us on the bus, which was nice. We stopped at a lighthouse and saw NZ Sea Lions (Hooker’s) and I collected paua shells. There was a male sea lion following a female sea lion, but she wasn’t interested. There were alos a whole bunch of idiot tourists walking right up to the sea lions, but no one got chased down or bit.

We stopped at Curio Bay for lunch. We were given a short guided walk there, the lady told us how the Maori used flax for everything and showed us the gum inside the flax that works as an insect repellent. She took us down to an ancient petrified forest that was buried by ash and lava. It was right on the coast, the waves were splashing over the petrified trees. Ferns were imprinted in some of the rocks.

We also stopped at a pretty waterfall, and then went to another lighthouse at Nugget Point.The point itself was really pretty - there were huge rocks sticking out of the water and their strata were vertical. If you looked through binoculars at the rocks you could see fur seals way way up along the sides and the top. They’re rock-climbing fur seals!!

Near Nugget Point was a hide where you could view Yellow-eyed Penguins. We got there at a perfect time - we saw three! They were walking along the beach and in the grass up to their burrows. This time of year they have chicks so the parents take turns going to feed during the day. The penguins were big compared with the Blues and had yellow irises (on the adults).

We got to Dunedin at about 7:30pm and were dropped off at our hostel, the Elm Lodge. It was ok, a nice old house, and there were only girls there the first night. It wasn’t the cleanest place and the walls were paper but there was a jacuzzi and a local phone (YAY!).