Full schedule ahead of us today……

Otago museum

We started at Otago museum. Lucky or not we saw the face of 2400yo mummy. The museum only revealed the face to the public couple of days ago. Researchers used CT scans and X-rays to provide better detailed views to develop a clay reconstruction. I am amazed at the wonders of technology but terrified by looking directly to the mummy.  The museum is a typical municipal museum and didn’t take us long to view all the gallery displays and exhibitions. Pheebs is a such interesting companion, she was not only wondering heaps questions to herself also told me she became a grandma Phoebe and started paying close attention to the plants, flowers and shrubs for her gardening project like the orderlies.

Larnach Castle

Well Grandma Pheebs, it is a castle time now.  We managed to navigate through Dunedin and drive up rather steep hill up to the Larnach Castle – New Zealand’s only castle built in 1871. The ballroom cafe is an outward show and no further comments on its foods. The tragic stories of Larnach family got me congested to start. But the first floor was spectacular, luckily we hired audio tour guide and learnt bit more information about the family and the building itself. Well with the rains and thunderstorms in between we didn’t really spend much time outside and obviously missed the few wows if visiting in the hot summer days.

Getting close to the world largest seabirds

Phoebe and I are looking forward meeting Albatrosses and Little blue penguins. Highly recommended activities!!! The place we are going to visit these lovely and intelligent creatures is right on the end of Otago Peninsula at a place called Taiaroa Head, is the world’s only mainland royal albatross colony.

Our guide for the royal albatross tour took us to a video room and introduced the fascinating life of the northern royal albatross: the connection between breeding pairs – how they can be apart for a whole year circling Antarctica, travelling 1,000km a day, to land back on Taiaroa Head within days of each other; the commitment and the shared responsibilities: both parents take it in turns to gather food over a few days to feed their chick (and themselves) while the other one nests on the vulnerable chick; the patient process – the process is so tough that the birds have a year off between breeding. This intelligent bird is more advanced than us humans. The nobility builds in their blood. Our guide took us into a viewing room build into the headland. Through the narrow window we saw handful albatrosses, some nesting, a pair teasing each other, few hovering. We didn’t get chance to see the only one baby chick in the area. We were viewing them pretty much close to the taking off season.

Little blue penguin time

8:00pm it is starting to get dark which means little blue penguin time!!! Little blue penguin is the world’s smallest penguin. When the sun goes down, a colony of blue penguins land on Pilot Beach after a hard day fishing or having fun in the ocean. I had my hesitation to head down to the beach because of the heavy downpour of rain to start with. With the rain, the waiting…… I prayed: give us little blue penguins, please please until our guide said look, from the darker colour of seawater she told us be ready to welcome the first group. Yes, dozen of penguins pop out from the water and

start profusely waddling across the beach towards us! They must know they need to go home but playfully manoeuvred few steps then stopped and wondering around for a bit. Luckily the direction is there,  despite the stumbling and fumbling over the rocks, they just don’t give a sh*t if they face-plant the floor to get to their burrows. The next wave of penguins come, then the next…..

Little blue penguin time – casual visitor

We didn’t expect any moving things more than 50cm on the beach. All of the sudden, an enormous black shadow pop out from the water. What was that? We had our casual visitor tonight – a seal! And it must be a young one full of energy. He was playfully tracing the sea gulls and the blue penguins. Haha, the seal, the blue penguins and the sea gulls gave us a joyful performance. With the dim lights toward the beach, rain cleared up and the serene seashore, I truly melted into that moment. I am privileged to see the amazing creatures embrace our mother nature.

By the end of the night, the tour guide counted more than 91 penguins!!!  Good night, little penguins, the playful seal and stately albatross.

Friday:

Despite working and exercising beyond my full capacity in the past several days, the weekend is approaching. I shared few messages with Pheebs on Friday afternoon, the excitement started building up. Few 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧emojis from her. Haha, yes we are going to see the penguins, the albatrosses, the blended Maori and Scottish culture in the South Island!!! The girls getaway weekend trip starts in few hours.

Thanks to her hubby my good friend Bingbing dropped us to the airport. The girls trip starts officially. The desserts in the domestic lounge warmed us, and the matching hats Pheebs bought us bring lots lighthearted moments. Thanks sister 🎩🎩 the pink one suits you very well and I love the blue one.

When we landed in Dunedin, the temperature was just about right plus the bonus of no WIND no WIND and no WIND, we nestled into a comfortable spring evening. The compact Holden Spark is the right size for us for the next two days. We are staying at the pacific park hotel which just few hills past the center of this quaint and beautiful city.

Quickly checked in, we drove to the centre of the city centre, the churches in my memories became alive. And again we both amazed by tranquility in this city. Well we can only say it until we went to the bar for a drink. Luckily the tourist spot doesn’t quiet lure the young students. One drink is more than enough for a good night sleep 💤