Thursday 24th February

We breakfasted this morning at the Excelsior Café which is situated in the lobby of the old Excelsior Hotel.

We then walked into town to go to the library to make use of the free internet, which allowed us the freedom to load the blog, read some e-mails, answer some e-mails and then Google the local square dance group as we had come out without the contact details.  We e-mailed the organisers and also left a message on the phone to let them know that we were still intending to join them, but would be later than we had anticipated.

We had a walk around the city centre and found it to be full of “ordinary” shops rather than the tourist shops that we have been encountering.  We collected Subway sandwiches to eat for our main meal tonight as we would not have time to go out for a meal.

After walking back to the hotel we had a quick change of clothes as the weather had definitely warmed up.  We then sat outside the hotel and waited for the courtesy coach that was due to pick us up for the Monarch Wildlife cruise.  We were picked up by a very nice young man called James who took us on a scenic drive along the Otago Peninsula.

We ended up at Penguin Place, a reserve to help the breeding programme of the yellow-eyed penguin.  We saw the hospital where the underweight or injured penguins are nursed back to life. 

We then went for a walk around the reserve and got up really close to the “teenage” penguins.  They were not afraid of us at all (at their stage, they know no predators) and it was a real privilege to be allowed to get so up close and personal with them. 

There are areas of the reserve that the humans are in covered walkways so that they don’t disturb the penguins.

We were then taken down to the local quay side where we were taken aboard The Monarch to go further out of the sound into the Southern Ocean.  There were less than 20 of us on the boat and so it was possible to see both sides of the boat.  The skipper and his two assistants were marvellous at pointing out the wild life.  We saw fur seals again, pied skuas, shearwaters, various shags and the highlight:  three different kinds of Albatross and blue penguins.

 

After dropping off some of the party, we were then taken on a boat trip up the sound  towards Dunedin.  It was very calm and we appreciated seeing skeins of shags flying from Dunedin towards their roosts on the sea cliffs. 

Before we got off the boat we were given cups of tea and savouries.

We had a courtesy bus back to the hotel and then it was a quick change and a sandwich before we set off to join The Roaring 40s Square Dance Club.  We were warmly received by Eleanor and Simon, the callers and Brett the round dance cuer.  We had an excellent evening of square and round dancing with only a ten minute tea break.

An excellent day in Dunedin.