Otago Peninsula and the Taieri Gorge Railway

The thing to do in Dunedin is to not be in Dunedin...the popular thing to do while visiting is to see the Otago Peninsula and all the wildlife. So, on February 18, we booked another tour to see some of these animals. Yes, another boat. I must be getting more used to boats since I don't get as sick on them as I used to.

Flock of geese (not seagulls, sorry 80's fans)

Along the Otago Peninsula

Hey, there's a bird over there

The serene waters. I was lucky that it was so calm that day.

Port Chalmers

Northern Cape Petrel

Northern Giant Petrel

Spotted Shag and their nests; the shags are waiting for the sun to get higher

New Zealand Fur Seal

Hey! 

Looking into the middle distance - well done, baby fur seal!

More baby fur seals

Chillin' on the rocks

White capped albatross

The albatross wing span is almost 3 meters - that's almost 10 feet!

The east coast of the South Island is also known for the endangered Yellow Eyed penguins (one of the rarest penguins in the world). They estimate only about 4000 left in the world with about 700 living in New Zealand. We got a good look at these birds as well but since it was during the day, we didn't see many adult yellow eyed penguins because they were out getting food for the kids.

Otago Peninsula, home of yellow-eyed penguins

The sheep here have a great view of the ocean

Baby yellow eyed penguins have grey eyes until they are ready to mate

The penguins' homes

A juvenile penguin that is beginning to moult

A bachelor yellow eyed penguin

A close up of the bachelor penguin

The day didn't end there - we also took a REALLY long train ride once we got back into town. Advertised as "one of the world's great train trips", we got suckered into take the Taieri Gorge Railway.

We thought it would be fun to ride the Taieri Gorge Railway from Dunedin to Pukerangi

We took this train, an old passenger car without AC...not that much fun

Paul thought it'd be a good idea to move the wheel 

But he didn't really think it'd move...oops. Glad we didn't go off the tracks

On a bridge - I'm such a daredevil sticking my hand out to take this shot

Reefs Hotel - a 3 star hotel along the way

We wanted this train ride to be over after the first 30 minutes