We spent two days in Dunedin and along the Otago Peninsula. We came here for two main reasons: chocolate and penguins
Dunedin is the home of Cadbury New Zealand. And the Otago Peninsula across the bay is the home of the Little Blue Penguin.
We spent a magical morning at the Cadbury Factory. No cameras are allowed inside the factory but we got to see how the different production and packaging lines work. And we got to see a huge chocolate waterfall and sample liquid chocolate. We left with a huge bag of chocolate.
We finished off our first day with a trip to the tip of the Otago peninsula at sunset. We stood on a boardwalk and watched 200 little blue penguins come back to shore after a long day of hunting for food. They approached in smaller rafts of 8-20 each and it was a delight to watch them swim up onto the beach and then take on the rockfall like a small platoon. They’re so small (only about 12 inches tall) and so frenetic and so cute, that they are nicknamed “Fairy Penguins”. And they are not afraid of humans at all, walking right past us to their burrows to feed their chicks and give their mate a break. The time flew by as we sat there for hours watching them come in.
The second day on Otago we wandered over to several beaches in the area to wander on the sand and look for wildlife. We were rewarded with lots of seal and sea lion sightings. But they cherry on the top of our trip was when we came across a Yellow-Eyed Penguin just hangin’ on the beach. This was a pretty rare occurrence as yellow-eyed penguins are nervous about everything, especially people. This one sat, grooming its plumage, while we sat close by and just watched. Truly a treat!
Dunedin and Otago definitely delivered!
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