Saturday, March 19, 2005
Albatrosses and Penguins
We've had increasingly good dinners the last three nights. On our last night in Te Anau, we ate at the Redcliff Cafe, and enjoyed chatting with the owners as we were leaving. Te Anau is still a pretty nice place -- there aren't any massive hotels -- but they aren't happy about how it's growing so close to the lake. They refer to the tourist mecca to the north, Queenstown, as Cranetown (i.e. construction cranes). The following night in Dunedin we ate at Bell Pepper Blues, a kind of stuffy little restaurant in a slightly seedy area. They stuck us at the back, but the food and wine were all really nice. Last night we had the Grand Menu at La Bon Bolli in Christchurch, in which the chef sent out several courses of his choosing. If I remember correctly, these were the courses: an eggplant tart amuse-bouche that everyone got; a brie and avocado salad; a tomato consomme; a little pastry cup with dark smoked mushrooms; a plate of sweetbreads; a carrot-ginger sorbet palate-cleanser; venison; an orange crepe; a plate of apple desserts; and petit-fours. The whole thing took about three and a half hours, and we had six different glasses of New Zealand wines with it all.
The drive from Te Anau to Dunedin was pretty direct -- we stopped only to mark the southernmost point we've ever been to (46 degrees 15 minutes south), and to take a picture of the sign marking the section of highway going from the town of Gore to the town of Clinton as the Presidential Highway. It seems a little odd that there's so little land in the world south of 45 degrees south (only New Zealand, a little South America, and Antarctica), while there's a huge amount of land north of 45 degrees north.
We headed to the Royal Albatross Centre where we had a booking to view the albatrosses. Most albatrosses nest on islands, but there's a particular spot on the Otago Peninsula where they've been nesting since the military cleared it and set up some trails around World War I. The albatrosses squatted on the turf after the invasion threat to New Zealand subsided. They have a little observatory where you can go and watch them for awhile. During our visit, there were three chicks sitting on the ground (of about 20 of this year's batch, the others of whom were out of view); an adult who had just finished feeding one of them and was walking up the hill to get ready to fly out looking for more food, but the wind wasn't cooperating; and three or four juveniles just flying around the area. They're really large birds, with a three-meter wingspan. They hardly move their wings. Just the feathers a little bit to control their soaring.
We could also see dozens of shags (another New Zealand seabird) hanging out on the cliffside.
After our albatross viewing, we went on to our appointment a few kilometers away with the yellow-eyed penguins. These penguins had set up a couple of colonies on some farmland, and the farmer decided to declare them a reserve, but to let tourists come look at them to help support the costs of preserving them. There's an elaborate maze of tunnels and blinds so the penguins can't really see us up close watching them. Before we went out to the blinds, the guide explained that these are the second-rarest breed of penguins, second only to the Galapagos penguins, which we saw last year. This is a collection which we won't pursue. If one were known for having seen all the species of penguin in decreasing order of rarity one would keep from being bothered at parties and in saloons, but it's more for somebody who likes cold weather and long boat rides to isolated Subantarctic Islands.
The guide also explained that March is their moulting season. Just before that they super-gorge on fish and get really really fat, putting on an extra 30 percent of body weight. Then they just go and stand somewhere for a month while new feathers push out all of the old ones. Some of them we saw had just finished the moult and had nice new shiny coats, and some others were standing there with a dull fluffy covering of old feathers. They're a very cute variety with a yellow "mask" added to the typical penguin coloration. However they are notable for being anti-social. They ignore each other and don't make cute penguin swarms.
The town of Oamaru between Dunedin and Christchurch has a colony of blue penguins, but they were all out to sea at the time of day we were passing through, so there would have been nothing to see. Penguins commute. So we just looked at all the big buildings (they have pretty grandiose architecture for a little seaside town) and had a platter at the local cheese factory. The art gallery had a painting by Edward Lear, of Petra. Hmm.
Now it's Sunday morning in Cathedral Square in Christchurch in a massive internet cafe next to the cathedral, and the bells haven't shut up the whole time I've been typing this, though they seem to be stopping now -- I guess it's time for the service. We'll probably walk over to the weekend flea market instead, and then to the brand new art museum, with Frank Gehry-lite architecture.
The drive from Te Anau to Dunedin was pretty direct -- we stopped only to mark the southernmost point we've ever been to (46 degrees 15 minutes south), and to take a picture of the sign marking the section of highway going from the town of Gore to the town of Clinton as the Presidential Highway. It seems a little odd that there's so little land in the world south of 45 degrees south (only New Zealand, a little South America, and Antarctica), while there's a huge amount of land north of 45 degrees north.
We headed to the Royal Albatross Centre where we had a booking to view the albatrosses. Most albatrosses nest on islands, but there's a particular spot on the Otago Peninsula where they've been nesting since the military cleared it and set up some trails around World War I. The albatrosses squatted on the turf after the invasion threat to New Zealand subsided. They have a little observatory where you can go and watch them for awhile. During our visit, there were three chicks sitting on the ground (of about 20 of this year's batch, the others of whom were out of view); an adult who had just finished feeding one of them and was walking up the hill to get ready to fly out looking for more food, but the wind wasn't cooperating; and three or four juveniles just flying around the area. They're really large birds, with a three-meter wingspan. They hardly move their wings. Just the feathers a little bit to control their soaring.
We could also see dozens of shags (another New Zealand seabird) hanging out on the cliffside.
After our albatross viewing, we went on to our appointment a few kilometers away with the yellow-eyed penguins. These penguins had set up a couple of colonies on some farmland, and the farmer decided to declare them a reserve, but to let tourists come look at them to help support the costs of preserving them. There's an elaborate maze of tunnels and blinds so the penguins can't really see us up close watching them. Before we went out to the blinds, the guide explained that these are the second-rarest breed of penguins, second only to the Galapagos penguins, which we saw last year. This is a collection which we won't pursue. If one were known for having seen all the species of penguin in decreasing order of rarity one would keep from being bothered at parties and in saloons, but it's more for somebody who likes cold weather and long boat rides to isolated Subantarctic Islands.
The guide also explained that March is their moulting season. Just before that they super-gorge on fish and get really really fat, putting on an extra 30 percent of body weight. Then they just go and stand somewhere for a month while new feathers push out all of the old ones. Some of them we saw had just finished the moult and had nice new shiny coats, and some others were standing there with a dull fluffy covering of old feathers. They're a very cute variety with a yellow "mask" added to the typical penguin coloration. However they are notable for being anti-social. They ignore each other and don't make cute penguin swarms.
The town of Oamaru between Dunedin and Christchurch has a colony of blue penguins, but they were all out to sea at the time of day we were passing through, so there would have been nothing to see. Penguins commute. So we just looked at all the big buildings (they have pretty grandiose architecture for a little seaside town) and had a platter at the local cheese factory. The art gallery had a painting by Edward Lear, of Petra. Hmm.
Now it's Sunday morning in Cathedral Square in Christchurch in a massive internet cafe next to the cathedral, and the bells haven't shut up the whole time I've been typing this, though they seem to be stopping now -- I guess it's time for the service. We'll probably walk over to the weekend flea market instead, and then to the brand new art museum, with Frank Gehry-lite architecture.
