Our ship docked in Port Chalmers, which is the gateway to Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula. We boarded a smaller vessel near the cruise port and began our quest to see Royal Albatrosses and other wildlife. The skies were mostly blue and we enjoyed hearing about the volcanic activity that made up much of the landscape. We didn’t have to go far into the harbor to see our first birds, black swans, which were hanging out on a sandbar. There were many types of gulls and terns too. Suddenly, we saw a New Zealand blue penguin playing and fishing just next to our boat. I wasn’t able to catch a photo because the boat was pitching and the penguin was fast. But it was awesome.

We saw fur seals with their pups and a beautiful lighthouse, and then we headed out of Otago Bay to open ocean waters to hopefully see the Albatross. We didn’t have to go far before we found dozens of them. There were Royal’s and Buller’s, enjoying some fishing. Our photos don’t really capture how big these birds are but their wing span is 3 – 4 feet. They can fly 60 MPH and travel an average of 250,000 miles over their lifetime. Again, I had a hard time capturing them in flight as the swells were pretty high (Marshall was hanging on to my jean belt loops so I didn’t flip overboard while I was holding my camera). We visited the Otago Peninsula in 2020 and went on a land excursion all the way out to the tip of the peninsula to the Royal Albatross Centre, the world’s only mainland nesting colony. So, it was great to see it from a different perspective, from the water, and to see the Royal’s from the water. On the way back to harbor, we saw a large NZ sea lion who had beached himself to enjoy the sun.

We hitched a ride with our tour guide into Dunedin and walked around for a few hours. We had a yummy Asian fusion lunch at Vault 21 and got back to the ship in good shape. There was a big storm in the Tasman Sea so we were spending the night in Port Chalmers. We will not be visiting Fiordland due to the storm.

Next stop in three days: Sydney, Australia.