Big Trip

Treated ourselves to a lazy morning today, and then headed further up the wibbly windy coast road, which was better today, as it wasn't anywhere near as windy. Popped in at Penguin Place to see if there was any tour space, and managed to get in straight away. We were taken over to Penguin Beach to see the colony of Yellow Eyed Penguins (very rare, only about 4000 left). They're replanting coastal woodland there, and building nesting boxes for the birds. There were a few nesting, including Brian, the 21 year old senior male, and his 3 year old partner, Nicky. There were quite a few chicks around too. Hefty birds, they were, almost adult sized, but brown and fluffy instead of the more traditional penguin markings of the adult birds. We were able to get really close to some of them. There were also a couple of Blue Penguins, the world's smallest, but they were lurking in their nesting boxes and were quite difficult to see.
Down on the beach below us there were a few fur seals basking in the sun and, oddly, there was one up on the grass next to a small group of grazing sheep.
Later, we headed up to the Royal Albatross colony at Taiaroa. We were lucky enough to see a number of birds sitting on the nests incubating eggs, and there were quite a few juveniles showing off their flying skills. They really are amazing - they soar without any effort at all, and they can fly really fast. Yet, when they take off, they just spread their wings and wait to be lifted off the ground, and when they take off they just slow to the point where they can step out of the air on to the ground. Great viewing. Then back for another night at our lovely little camp site.