Cycle: 34km

The Otago Peninsula is all about the wildlife. We were feeling pretty whacked from lots of days of cycling in a row so decided to not go bananas and try and see everything we'd been planning too. The main attractions are birds (in particular Albatross), seals, sea lions and penguins (little blue and yellow-eye).

We'd heard that a good beach to get away from the crowds and see lots of wildlife was to go to Victory Beach. We set off, but were feeling wobbly so thought we'd have some food. We went to the Portobello Cafe and had five cheese toasties, three shortbreads and two cookies. And some tea. Feeling much better we set off over the big unsealed hill to the beach. Most "City Folk" don't go to Victory Beach because you can't drive all the way there (they all head for Sandfly Bay). We took the bikes over the fence which meant we could get much closer and save some time. At the beach we saw one female sea lion (grey and smaller than the males) who kindly swam off into the surf for us; about 15 seals who were basking on the rocks; a sea horse getting washed into shore (I threw it out into an outgoing wave) and a shag that looked a bit the worse for wear! The weather wasn't too good which meant we didn't see quite as many seals or sea lions as we were hoping for, but there should be plenty more further South.

It was getting on in the afternoon so we rushed off to see what we were really here for: Royal Albatross. We did the tour here where you get to see some of the chicks up close from a hide. We saw two chicks, and both parents simultaneously return to one of the chicks. This is a rare event that the staff got excited about too! We saw the mother feed the chick at least five times! The chick was 4kg and will grow to 12kg before losing weight as it builds up its feathers. The adults are 7km, but lose weight as they feed the chick which at one point will be double their weight! We saw the birds flying right in front of us which was incredible. Their wing span is up to 3.4m! They don't flap much so simply glide around! The breeding colony is the only mainland colony of its kind in the world. There are about 140 birds coming their (biannually) to breed. The only other place they breed are in the Chatham Islands (1000km East of mainland New Zealand) where there are 20,000 birds! Now that must be an incredible sight.

We cycled back to our hostel chasing the light. Tonight there was only one other guest who was very friendly (in contrast to last night). Saima was an interesting French translator (medical and pharmaceutical information from English, Spanish and Italian into French!) She looked very familiar and we worked out we'd been in Picton in the Juggler's Rest at the same time in February!