The people here keep talking about the roaring forties. These are the winds that circle the globe between 40 and 50 degrees south of the equator. Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula are more than 45 degrees south and has much more wind than I previously experienced in New Zealand.
I arrived here Friday, driving south into the cold wind from the south. The showers were only intermittent, and even though I spent hours walking to beaches where I could see wildlife, I didn’t get wet (except when I failed to watch the incoming tide once).
Have you noticed that anything can be positive or negative, depending on your outlook? The wind Friday was ideal to see albatross flying, as a tour guide at the Royal Albatross Centre noted. These big birds with a wingspan of more than 10 feet simply can’t take off without wind.
The Royal Albatross Center is at the very end of the Otago Peninsula, and its observatory offers a superb site for seeing these magnificent birds in flight. Albatross are the largest of the world’s seabirds, with the Royal being the largest of all. And this is the only mainland place in the world where albatross bred.
These five photos need no captions:
Click on the picture above to enlarge
Click on the picture above to enlarge
Click on the picture above to enlarge
Click on the picture above to enlarge
Click on the picture above to enlarge
2 responses so far ↓
1 Laurie D // Apr 16, 2010 at 1:01 pm
This is where we met David!!!
You say above: “Have you noticed that anything can be positive or negative, depending on your outlook?”
So true!
2 David Mendosa // Apr 16, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Dear Laurie,
I remember the moment we met! And I hope to meet you again here in Boulder soon. I just returned this afternoon from another trip, this one to southern Utah and the Keystone ski resort. I’ll call soon!
David
Leave a Comment