Summertime, and The Livin' is Easy

One of these mornings, darlin'

You're gonna rise,
You're gonna' rise up singin'

Then you'll spread your little wings,
Your little wings

And take to the ska-da-da-da-dy

- Billy Stewart / Written by Gershwin, Gershwin, and Heyward 

Since moving to New Zealand, we have tried to take advantage of my schedule and our spot on this planet by getting out and exploring. Typically, this involves 1-2 day trips and the occasional long weekend away. We are fortunate that there is a huge amount of things to do and see within a 2-4 hour drive of Palmy, but it really limits how far we can roam. This month, the start of Little H's summer break coincided with a 6 day stretch of off days for me, so we booked a trip to the South Island.

In flight from Wellington to Dunedin

New Zealand's South Island is vast and the areas to visit are pretty spread out. When we came on holiday 3 years ago, we rented a caravan, spent two weeks on the North Island, and still did not get to see a lot of it. I imagine the South Island would take a month on its own, so we have to pick and choose our destinations and plan to make several trips. Our first venture to the South Island, and a quest to see penguins, brought us to Dunedin and Oamaru.

Dunedin sits on the Southeast (Pacific) coast of the South Island, at the head of Otago (Maori Otakou) Harbour. Otakou Peninsula forms the southern border of the harbour and has been populated for approximately 700 years. The eastern tip, Taiaroa Head, is surrounded on 3 sides by steep cliffs, and the peninsula has a narrow neck. With a source of fresh water, and abundant sea life, it was an area the Maori could fortify and defend.

  

Views from Taiaroa Head

After European occupation of the area, it continued to serve as a defensive position. In 1885, a Russian warship reportedly entered Auckland Harbour, putting a scare into New Zealanders and prompting a review of their defenses. Taiaroa Head was fortified with tunnels, bunkers, and gun emplacements. Improvements were made up through WWI, but by the start of WWII, they were pretty much obsolete. Nevertheless, Taiaroa Head continued to be occupied as a spotting station watching for Japanese submarines.

In the early 1930's, a single Southern Royal Albatross landed and nested on Taiaroa Head and established what would come to be the only mainland breeding colony of albatross in the Southern hemisphere. Albatross are large sea-going, and sea-living birds and generally only nest on uninhabited islands. They typically mate for life, and males and females share incubation duties. One bird is gone out to sea for several days at a time, their partner never leaving the nest and therefore never eating or drinking. Incubation is for 11 weeks. After hatching, the parents continue this pattern of protecting and feeding the chick for another 30-40 days. After the fledgling is ready to survive on their own, the adults return to the sea and don't set foot on land again for another year. Adolescent birds can take up to 3-4 years to choose a mate, start breeding at 7-12 years, and can live 40+ years.

  

Wildlife at Royal Albatross Centre, Taiaroa Head

We had a lazy start to the day since our tour of the Royal Albatross Centre didn't start 'til 11 am. We arrived early and explored the cliffs and Pilot Beach. After the tour, we had lunch at a cliff side cafe overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The rest of the day was spent driving and exploring the peninsula. At both Sand Fly Beach and Tunnel Beach, the walk down wasn't so bad, but the walk back up was brutal. Sand Fly beach is named not for the annoying bugs (thankfully, we did not encounter any), but for the way the sand flies from the wind. Tunnel beach was really cool; it involved a hike down through a mix of public and private land to a long narrow tunnel carved in limestone. The tunnel dig was commissioned in the 1870's. It was created so the landowner's children could access and swim at the beach. Local legend is that one of his daughters drowned, but a quick internet search reveals that story to be lore without much evidence to back it up. Oh well, never let the truth get in the way of a good story ...

     

Sand Fly Beach

   

   

Tunnel Beach

For the first day of summer vacation, it was pretty full and the pace hasn't abated much for Day 2. After getting up early to clean the crib, we spent the morning at the Cadbury factory, did some sea shell scavenging, and drove to Oamaru. There were a few stops along the way, but that is a post for another day.

These boots were made for walkin' ...