Day six we left Weetbix to rest at the campsite in Te Anau for the day while we let someone else do the driving and commentary on a tour to Milford Sound. We went expecting the weather might not cooperate as it is considered one of the wettest inhabited places on earth. December and January are the wettest months with a whopping 722mm (28.4 inches) average for January alone. It isn’t unusual for there to be 250mm (9.8 inches) of rain in a 24 hour period. In 2016 all records were broken with the annual rainfall of 9259mm (364.5 inches). There was no rain on the day that we went. Much like the rest of the country, they were experiencing unusually dry weather. On the drive there we made a few quick stops for pictures and also because the van we were touring in was an official post vehicle and we had to deliver the mail.
We had to wait at the entrance to the Homer Tunnel for the cars on the other side to go through. It is a 1.2km long tunnel through solid granite. Quite impressive.
We lucked out on our boat tour as there were only 18 of us on board. In the afternoon that would change as the bus loads arrive from Queenstown, a 4 hour drive away.
Although not a great picture, we saw these Dusky Dolphins out where the Sound meets the open ocean.
Day seven we drove to Portobello on the Otago Pennisula by way of Te Waewae bay in hopes of seeing one of the smallest and rarest dolphins in the world as they are only found in the waters off New Zealand. We weren’t disappointed. Getting a picture of them proved a little more difficult. The dorsal fin of the Hector’s Dolphin is distinctively rounded making identification rather easy. They are between 3’11” – 5’3″ in length. By comparison, our Pacific White Sided Dolphins are between 5’5″ – 8′.
We met some new friends at the campground.
Day eight was another tour day. We visited the Royal Albatross Centre to get a close up view of these amazing birds that live almost their entire life at sea only returning to land to breed every other year. They circumnavigate the Southern Ocean in search of good eats before returning to the place where they hatched to raise a chick of their own.
The average wingspan of these birds is over 3 metres so these pictures just can’t adequately capture their size. They are very graceful in flight, more of a gliding, but their landings can be a little rough.
This is the only mainland breeding colony in the world and there are around 200 of them that call this home. They aren’t the only birds to nest here though. Red billed Seagulls are everywhere (around 4000 of them) although they are actually more endangered than the albatross.
We also saw several different Shags. This one was a Spotted Shag.
From there it was on to explore Dunedin. Again I was attracted to the street art so our city walkabout was a little biased. I’ll save that for the next post.
Wow! Happy New Year!!!! Love AT