We decided to leave the city and head for Otago Peninsula. It is about a 45 minute drive over narrow roads to a beautiful but narrow and hilly peninsula. On one side is the harbor for Dunedin and the other side is the Pacific Ocean. It is home to a great variety of wildlife.

We stopped at Larnarch Castle, a beautiful mansion built by JWM Larnarch, a very successful merchant and politician, for his first wife on the highest point of Otago Peninsula.   Construction began in 1871, and 200 workmen labored for three years before the family moved in. Then European craftsmen worked for twelve more years to embellish the interior. The home is gorgeous, and equally so are the gardens. The views are spectacular.

We drove on to the town of Portobello and checked into our campground and had lunch. Then we went to our tour at Penguin Place, a unique conservation project for the rarest penguins, the yellow-eyed penguins. A sheep farming family decided to turn over part of their land to these penguins, and then built a series of covered trenches, like long tunnels, with hides having peek holes so that the penguins can be seen up close without disturbing them.

During the introductory talk, our guide was warning us what "not to do" on the tour in order to not disturb the penguins, and she said she had to add “Do not whistle” to her list. She said last week a lady whistled at the penguins, and she had to ask her “to please desist,” but the lady didn't stop right away. I wondered if the lady understood what “to desist” meant.

Our first stop was to the penguin hospital. Between mid-January to mid-February this year, there was a massive die-off of yellow-eyed penguins, who only live on a few remote islands and this part of the South Island. They don’t know what caused the penguins to die, but it was during nesting season, and many young penguins were left orphans. So Penguin Place has taken in 67 youngsters, who each must be force-fed a kg of fish a day. The young penguins are doing well. They don’t have the yellow stripe through the eye yet.

Then we boarded a bus that took us close to the penguin colony. This is the very end of the nesting time, and there is only one chick left with its parents. The others have gone off on their own, but this guy likes having his parents feed him every day. The rest of the penguins are in a molt and really look pathetic. During one month, the penguins can’t go into the water to feed, so they have to fatten up before molting. Then they just hang out on land, doing nothing for the four weeks it takes them to lose old feathers and grow new ones. Our guide said it was like they were on holiday, but they didn’t look particularly happy about it to me.

The Penguin Place also has a few small huts for Little Blue Penguins, and a few were at home but hard to see while inside their huts. We hope to see more of them in a couple of days. There were also a few fur seals on the beach and rocks.

Then we went to Taiaroa Head, at the end of the peninsula, which has the only northern royal albatross colony in the world on a mainland close to people. This is nesting season for them; the chicks will fledge in September. These birds have a large wingspan and can soar without beating their wings. They will live at sea for years and only return to land to court, mate and raise their chicks.

While watching the albatross soar, we saw two cruise ships leave from Dunedin harbor. I wondered if one of them had been Beverly’s a month ago, so we took some photos, just in case.