Albatross and Harbour Cruise

So, back to my birthday...

I mentioned that my birthday took a few days to celebrate.  Well, the weekend after my birthday started off with a trip to Mt. Cargill to catch a beautiful sunrise with Jen, Alex and Will.

Next, Will and I set off to the peninsula to visit the Royal Albatross Centre.  It was a pretty neat place to tour.  Below, you'll see a picture of an albatross chick.  Can you believe that these guys have to lose weight before they learn to fly?!

There are other interesting facts about these albatross...for example, they'll circumnavigate the globe and then come back to this spot in 5-6 years to reproduce.  

Also, the adults are huge!  Well, actually, their wing span is quite impressive-roughly 9ft!  Here's a video of some adults flying above the chick:

Included in the tour was a visit of Fort Taiaroa which was built to defend against the Russians.  Hmm, it's such a long flight to New Zealand, I can't imagine Russians wanting to sail all the way there!

The BIG surprise of the day was a cruise on the harbor.  It complemented the tour of the albatross colony so well!

I thought it was pretty neat to see the colony from the water:

(If you squint you can see white dots - those are the albatross chicks in the middle and just a little to the left)

Behind the boat was a pretty nice view, too!

Who would have thought we'd end the tour with a kiwi pirate ship spotting?!

Ah, I just love being out on the peninsula and out on the water - the colony tour and harbor cruise were fantastic surprises for my birthday!

I highly recommend that visitors combine the two in one trip, but keep an eye out for deals on GrabOne or the local Entertainment book to make it more affordable.