Dunedin Photographs

This bay was at Oamaru, halfway along our route from Christchurch to Dunedin. Apparently yellow eyed penguins can be seen here in the evening, but unfortunately we were here too early in the day to see them (so we stopped a little further down the coast to spot one instead). It was a lovely cove anyway, with a pretty cliff-top walk overlooking the beach. If you’re wondering, I’m balanced on a 5 cm wide fence at the top of the cliff so Gary could get as much of the scene in the photo as possible… and behind me is a near vertical drop down to the beach below. Nice to have a good sense of balance eh?

A very beautiful beach, with some very beautiful boulders in the distance on the left...

The Moeraki boulders. These spherical lumps of rock were stranded halfway along a vast and beautiful stretch of sand… kind of in the middle of nowhere. Lots are now broken up, revealing a sort of honeycomb interior, but there are plenty of intact ones too. The largest are about 2 m diameter – perfect for jumping between! I think I must have hopped back and forth between these rocks about 25 times before Gary got the timing perfect for the photo… and he didn’t exactly volunteer to have a go himself. I don’t think he liked the thought of falling off into the surf and getting wet! Wimp!

Gary by the rocks, from the safety of the beach. Well, at least he thought he was safe. A few minutes later while photographing me perched on a different rock he didn’t notice the waves coming in so got his feet wet anyway!

This picture was taken near the albatross centre on Ontago Peninsular. The headland overlooked a bay almost sealed off by an impressive sand spit. And this headland was home to more than a few seagulls as well as albatrosses – these two flew straight at me as I was about to take a photo of the sand spit, so I thought I might as well snap them too.

A magnificent Royal Albatross. Yes, I know, it looks like a sea gull. But it’s not. It’s much bigger, OK? Trust me. You have to see these things in the flesh to appreciate the 3 m wingspan, but I think this photo gives some sort of an idea.

The first small group of very very sweet blue eyed penguins coming home at dusk. These little ones were followed up the beach 10 minutes later by a group of over fifty! But by that time it was so dark that photography was impossible – even this photograph was a nightmare to get in the very low light!

Our friend the grumpy sea lion. No, he didn’t eat us, but I think he would have liked to! And he was certainly big enough. This photo was taken from the top of some sand dunes behind him – so we weren’t blocking his passage to the sea (apparently they really don’t like that). And we weren’t even very close. But his bark was still loud enough to send us running!