While in Dunedin, we spent most of the time chasing wildlife. Dunedin is famous for its birds. It is the home to the only mainland breeding colony of the northern royal albatross in the world and one of the few areas you can spot the enchanting blue penguins and rare yellow-eyed penguins within meters of each other.
Our first stop was a visit to the Royal Albatross Centre. We arranged for a tour of the breeding colony and our visit luckily coincided with chick hatching season. This meant that we observed numerous albatross actively sitting on nests and occasionally the opposite parent would arrive from feeding to spell its mate. 
These birds are GIANTS! While watching the colony from a bird blind, one albatross decided to have a walk about and came within feet of our shelter. For as beautiful and graceful they are in flight, they are funny plodding birds on land. I guess we could blame it on their lack of practice since they only ever come on land to breed and that only happens every other year, once they are mature.
Here is a quick video of one walking:
Next up, we toured the Otago Penninsula Eco Restoration Alliance (OPERA). The main purpose of our tour was the opportunity to see a yellow-eyed penguin returning to its nest to feed the chicks. Unfortunately luck was not with us and we did not see any on the beach. We were able to hear the excited calls of the chicks when a parent did return with a full belly for them, but our timing was off and it reached the beach before we did. However, the OPERA is also home to a yellow-eyed penguin hospital and rehabilitation facility. Unlike blue penguins that come onshore as large groups after sunset, the yellow-eyed penguins are very solitary and return to their nests when they have caught enough food, so sitting and waiting for one to appear can be a trial in patience (just ask the kids since I took them to do that on a separate day). So after waiting a short while on the beach, we headed to the hospital to see the current patients.
Currently living in the facility are a few injured adults that are set to be released as soon as their injuries heal. Six of the residents are yearlings about to undergo their first molt and will live there until their new feathers grow in and they can again swim and fish for their food. Unlike other bird species, penguins do not occasionally lose feathers throughout the year, instead they experience a catastrophic molt around Jan-Mar and spend two weeks in their burrows not eating while they lose and regrow all their feathers. This cycle allows for them to be fully waterproof and warm at all other times of the year, however, they need to be able to fatten up before this molt in order to survive the weeks of fasting during it. If a yellow-eyed juvenile is found in distress close to their molting time then the hospital’s policy is to keep them through the molt in order to give them the best chance of future success in this species with a dangerously low population.
In order to better view the blue penguins, we headed up the coast to Oamaru, home of one of the largest blue penguin colonies in New Zealand. Every night the penguins wait off shore for all their little buddies and then come in after sunset in groups of 10-20 called rafts. We sat for around two hours and watched as raft after raft arrived for the night and listened to the cries of the chicks who were happy to be fed and the chatter of the penguins as they greeted each other and had some social time before settling in for the night. Watching them come ashore was great, but our favorite part was walking along the raised walkway above their colony to head back to the car. We stood and watched all their interactions and saw chicks in the process of losing their brown fluff and growing their swimming feathers. The fun didn’t end at the car either, the colony has grown so much that they have dens all over the hillside that surrounds the car park, so we were encouraged to check under the car before driving away in case one was hiding underneath. I spotted them waddling along the road side as we drove away and hanging out by a farmer’s shed. I would love to live in a town that has a colony of penguins!
