We woke up to more rain, and a cloud sitting on the ground. Not the best day for sightseeing. First stop was Larnach Castle. Built in 1871 by a local banker it is really just a grand house, and not even that big. Having said that, the thought and money which went into it's building was staggering. Sadly the family was an early version of a dysfunctional family, even to the extent of the second son having an affair with his father's third wife. The house was sold to the government in1906, then used for various institutional projects until being sold back into private hands after the Second World War. The present owners bought it in 1967, when it had been empty for about 15 years, and lovingly restored it.
After seeing the house, and enjoying a nice lunch in the ballroom (built as an add-on for the eldest daughter's birthday) we went to see the garden. Not a good idea, the rain had worsened and the mist descended further. From what we could see, the gardens were magnificent, but we hurried back to our nice dry van.
Otago peninsular is quite long, and we drove to the end, to a place called Taiaroa Head. As we decreased altitude the visibility got better, but when we reached the head the wind was incredibly strong.
We parked the van, then walked down to the sea where later in the day they do penguin tours. At the bottom we could see through a fence into an area of the wildlife reserve with several fur seals. However, there were also several fur seals on our side of the fence, looking like they were observing us!
Walking down the other side of the head we were blasted by the wind and could hardly stand upright. There is a colony of albatross on the headland, so we were constantly scanning the skies for a sight of these birds, but none were flying. The red beaked gulls were nesting all along the area, but taking off in such a wind was quite hazardous. Occasionally we could see a young gull pestering their parent for a feed.
Next stop was the furthest point the road led to, at a place called 'Natures Wonders Naturally'. The farmer there does tours in 8WD Argo's. Weird vehicles but very capable of getting around the rough tracks. At several places they have built hides so that you can see the wildlife, and they have a strict policy about not interfering at all with the birds and seals on their land, and allowing no one close enough to cause even the slightest stress. The result is large colonies of fur seals, little penguins (blue penguins) and the extremely rare yellow eyed penguin.
The first area we saw had several young cormorants (shag?) resting on the cliffs waiting for their parents to feed them.
In the sea below the birds was masses of bull kelp, a tough seaweed which helps feed the filter feeders (paua and mussels) in the area. It can grow up to 60 cm in a single day!
At another stop we could a large colony of fur seals, with several young ones playing in rock pools.
Some of the youngsters had only been born in late December. We even saw some of them feeding from their mothers.
We also saw little penguins, but they are too close to risk stressing them by taking photos. Though we didn't see any yellow eyed penguins we did hear them.
Back in the van again we went back down through the lower car park, still looking out for albatross. Then it was back to Dunedin, this time to the Dunedin Holiday Park, where we are now sitting taking full advantage of the power hook up, the laundry and the hot showers. Tomorrow we take the Taieri Gorge Railway to Middlemarch. Hope the weather gets better - at the moment the van is constantly swaying in the strong winds.
And yes, we did finally see an albatross!!
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