Nature

I went on a nature excursion on sunday. It was exciting to go on my first outdoors adventure in this country known for its outdoor experiences. Day was a bit overcast but a drastic improvement over the constant rain of the two previous days. After a pleasant twenty minute van ride from the visitor's center, where I was picked up by the tour company, through the otago peninsula, we arrived at the albatross center. While most of us did not pay the extra money to go on the albatross viewing extension, we almost immediately saw two albatross fly across the sky.

Then we headed to the beach where we were to see penguins, sea lions, and seals. It was quite interesting to be so close to wild animals I had only ever seen in a zoo. Sea lions it turns out have absolutely no fear of anything on land, a fact which lead to there extinction on new zealand after Maori hunters easily killed off the population, and a fact which makes it possible to get within feet of them. We also happened upon a female sea lion (one of only twenty in the country) on a beach that usually has no females on it.

All and all it was worth the money to get so up close to animals that most people will only know, at best, through the looking glass of a zoo.