We pack up and get out of our little accommodation in Oamaru and pop to McDonalds for a quick breakfast

First stop for our tour today is to Moeraki Boulders Beach; there’s a little gift shop where we grab a coffee for our wandering

These boulders are grey-coloured septarian concretions, which consist of mud, fine silt and clay, cemented by calcite and have been concentrated on this beach by coastal erosion

Up next, we head into the town of Moeraki where they have an Esplanade Reserve

It’s not long before we stumble on the wildlife that’s famous here, NZ fur seals – can you spot him?

Continuing our drive down the coast, we get to a place called Shag Point

It’s not meant to be a naughty name, it’s just what cormorants are called here and they are prolific in this region in addition to having a special variation of the species here, called an Otago shag

However, the big attraction here is the colony of NZ fur seals, and the occasional NZ sealion

After here, we carry on with a long slug of our drive today and go through Dunedin and take a left to go along the Otago Peninsula

At the very tip is the Royal Albatross Centre – we grab a couple tickets for the next tour that’s available and get a toastie to share while we wait

They have a visitor centre here which helps us understand the difference between the fur seals and sealions: both have external ear flaps and whiskers but the fur seals are smaller, have longer whiskers, are typically less vocal and more pointed snouts

The tour provides us with an overview about the albatross variation that nest here, the northern royal albatross:

• This is the only mainland colony of albatross in the southern hemisphere and the only mainland breeding colony of this type of albatross in the world
• They belong to the family that is the largest of all seabirds and these have the 3rd largest wingspan in the world, at 3m (below two other types of albatross)
• 1% of the northern royal albatross in the world nest here; the remaining 99% are in Channel Islands, which are approximately east of here
• The Channel Islands are the original breeding spot but this small colony came about 100 years ago: the species were originally spotted in 1919 and then they successfully incubated and laid an egg in 1938
• They can fly at speeds of up to 100 kph and can cover 1,000 km per day using dynamic soaring – this is an elbow-style joint in their wings, they can lock their wings and reduce energy to fly and soar
  
• 85% of their lives are spent at sea and they can drink salt water because they have a gland behind their eye socket that performs desalination on their blood

• Albatross are known as serial monogamists and have a strong will to look after their young
• They can loose up to 25% of their body fat during the early stages of rearing their young; because of this, they typically take a year “holiday” to recover
• Chicks will outweigh their parents as they grow, getting to about 11 kg and parents are usually around 8 kg
  
• When ready, the juvenile albatross will just set off for their first flight – this is usually a 10 – 12 day flight to the coast of Chile, South America!
• After about five years, these young will likely return to their hatching location where they will start to spend several summers finding and then strengthening a bond with a partner before breeding
• Sadly, in the egg laying season, there are occasions that one of the parents will go out to source food and not return; in this event, the research centre will be watching closely and only intervene if necessary
• The land here was previously a military stronghold; there’s evidence of a jail that was created in this time and now these doors have a small hole in the bottom to allow the little blue penguins, that nest in the area, to get in and out easily

Red-billed seagulls also nest here and they are in the midst of rearing their hatchlings which are absolutely everywhere!

As it gets on, we decide to carry on with our day, though not before Dave gets a surprise dropping attack from above!

We arrive back into Dunedin just before 6 pm; we find some free parking for the duration of our stay, check into Scenic Hotel Dunedin City and then find one of the only places open for dinner

Thai Hanoi serves us our usual Thai order

Post dinner, we have a little wander to the local Countdown to pick up some Christmas-y supplies as we’re feeling a little homesick

We have some Christmas cake with Love Actually on before bed