Travel blog: The Kiwi Edinburgh and a special wildlife tour

Anna Kainberger is taking a year-out from her career to travel in south-east Asia and Australasia, along with the South Pacific and the USA. This month she is reporting from New Zealand. Here is her 18th blog entry:

Queenstown is the place where the Magic Bus driver actually says "do not book yourself back on the bus" because experience shows that most people stay longer than they intended to.

Either they are having too much fun doing all the adrenalin-infused activities (such as riversurfing, bungee jumping, skydiving or all of the above) or they hang about because they meet someone worth hanging about for.

The driver said that with a smile and even I stayed a day longer than originally planned - which meant that I only had one night in Dunedin.

Dunedin is the Scottish heritage town of New Zealand and apparently Dunedin means Edinburgh in Scottish.

Well, it doesn't look anything like Edinburgh but it is set on beautiful Otago harbour and much of the land around the harbour is Maori-owned.

We arrived rather late in the afternoon and as the beers in Queenstown had taken their toll, I had to really motivate myself to go out and do something in Dunedin.

In the end I opted to spend a day with Elm Wildlife Tours as this eco-tour operator had been recommended by fellow travellers in New Zealand.

We were picked up by a mini-van from our hostel and drove out to the first destination - an albatross colony at the other side of the Otago peninsula.

I have never seen albatross in real life before and just the prospect of getting one single picture of these majestic and really big birds was very exciting for me and my fellow wildlife tour buddies.

There was no wind and albatrosses can only start and land well when it is windy due to their 14kg body weight.

So we had a cup of coffee, crossing our fingers for a fresh breeze and 20 minutes later the wind picked up and we all ran after one of the guides when he suddenly started running towards the view point.

Albatrosses have a wing span of 3.5 metres and they sail through the air, rather than fly.

They make huge circles before landing and this particular enormous bird came back at regular intervals. It was amazing to see him fly.

The albatross colony in Dunedin is a nesting ground and tourists are not allowed anywhere near the birds but just to be able to watch them land and fly from a distance is a great experience for anyone who likes animals, never mind birdwatchers.

The wildlife tour also included a visit to a penguin colony, sealions and seals as well as the prospect of a rather strange combination - penguins and sheep.

Onwards we drove down to a rather beautiful coastline on the Pacific Ocean and then hiked down to see the sealions.

Sealions are rather large and, like seals, they are active at night and spend their days sleeping.

I have to say they smell rather "special" and I would not want to get between them when the male sealions are fighting.

This particular area was also a nesting ground for Yellow-Eyed Penguins, which spend their days hunting in the ocean and return close to sunset to feed their young in burrows along the shore.

We stumbled across one young penguin sitting in the middle of a pathway. He looked quite lethargic as they were going through their moult at this particular time of year.

The little fellow did not look very happy, apparently their metabolism slows down rather drastically during the moulting period and they do not feel very well.

We hiked up a hillside to a purpose-built wooden viewing position and watched the adults returning from the sea. They waddled out of the water and climbed up the hill to reach their young.

Yellow-eyed Penguins always have two chicks to ensure at least one survives, with one chick being superior and the other chick always getting the second feed.

Penguins nearby to grazing sheep, of which there are obviously plenty in lovely New Zealand, was indeed a rather strange sight.

We learnt that penguins as well as sealions are originally forest animals. But they adjusted rather well to the deforestation of the area (for farming) and seem to be just fine - the penguins even climb the steep hills.

After seeing the penguin nesting grounds we hiked back up to the other side of the beach to a large seal colony. There were many young pups playing in pools and mothers lazing around, getting some rest after all that fishing.

The sun was going down and we enjoyed the stunning evening light and sunset before heading back into Dunedin to be dropped-off at our hostels.

The thing that struck me most about New Zealand is its respect for wildlife and the preservation of the natural environment.

New Zealanders have respect for their land and its wildlife - the days of whaling and deforestation are long over.

The bitter irony is that clean green New Zealand is situated near a big ozone hole caused by the rest of the world's pollution.

However, the ozone hole does something to the light in New Zealand and I had the impression everything was just a little bit lighter and clearer here, when the sun was shining.

The Elm wildlife tour was one of my favourite experiences in New Zealand. The crew and guides were very well informed and you could see that they truly had a passion for their jobs.

Even they got excited when they saw an albatross flying and were proud to show us this beautiful area in and around Dunedin.

The tour took eight hours and we got back late and rather tired but it was worth every penny of the NZ$65 (£26) and let's face it, sheep and penguins, an albatross, and sealions only five metres away?

Where else will you get the chance to see such beauty and diverse wildlife in one day?

I was well chuffed with the photos captured on my camera and went to bed exhausted.

It was to be yet another early start the next day to reach Lake Tekapo and the famous McKenzie country.

Anna Kainberger