Monday, April 24, 2006

Tramps, Hookers and Shags

Last night's wildlife tour presented us with the endangered Yellow-Eyed penguin and the New Zealand fur seal, known in the olden days as hookers. This presumably is due to the type of instrument used to kill them when sealing was legal in these parts. We saw about a dozen of each animal on their respected beaches, only a few kilometers apart.

The Otago Peninsula had these fantastic marshes for which one could hike (called tramping here) around. Black swans, oyster catchers and comorants (called shags) were easy bird spottin'. But then we caught a bird that was in an entirely different league, venturing to the point of the peninsula for a albatross experience.

At this point was a lighthouse surrounded by an albatross colony. One could position themselves on the cliff and observe these massive birds soar right overhead. Albatross have the longest wingspan of any bird in the world, measuring up to 10ft from tip to tip. These wings help the albatross travel east across the pacific from New Zealand to South America.

As I was lining up for a photo, a group of either Korean or Japanese tourists came up to try and catch a glimpse as well. Just then, a large adult albatross did a fly-by coming extremely close to us. The crescendo of joyous screams from the group was hilarious, it was as if they were on a roller coaster ride. The experience absolutely blew their minds, each one of them were carrying on in such an animated fashion, re-creating the encounter. For the next twenty minutes, every time there would be an albatross even hundreds of yards in the distance, the four of them would get together to yell and wave, trying in a futile (but amusing) attempt to attract the bird's attention.

posted by ncawthon at 7:18 PM