Fish Out of Water

Musings and observations about life from an East Coast native now living on the Left Coast in the California State Capitol since 2004. This fish has made her home in Madison, WI (7 years); Portland, OR (2 years); Las Vegas, NV (7 months); Middlebury, VT (3 summers); Marne-la-Vallee, a small town east of Paris, France (6 months); Middletown, CT (3 years); and Marshfield, MA, the fish's coastal hometown 40 miles south of Boston (17 years).

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Location: Sacramento, California, United States

1.14.2019

Southern Traverse Tour Day 7: Enjoying Dunedin

Sunday 1/13: Nova, Public Art Gallery, Otago Peninsula
A sunny morning but rain in the forecast for the afternoon. Back to Nova for breakfast -- wow! Some of the best food we've had during our trip! Eggs benedict with a smoked salmon fillet for Mr. E, and the Budda bowl (quinoa, beets, bean sprouts, spinach, avocado) topped with poached egg for me. And of course Americanos to accompany the delicious food.

As Mr. E finished his second coffee, I headed into the (free) adjacent Public Art Gallery and began with the New Networks exhibition of contemporary Chinese art. Some very striking and moving works, including an entire section of pieces from the White Rabbit collection, and it was fascinating to see this linkage and have a connection to our recent time in Sydney. The permanent collection of the Gallery is also most impressive, and we spent nearly two hours exploring the various exhibitions. Incredible that all of this is free!!!

Mr. E returned to Nova for another coffee and a sweet treat, and we then headed back to the hotel for our 1:15pm pick-up for the Otago Peninsula excursion. A light rain started to fall, but the weather cleared as we drove out across the top of the peninsula to the Albatross Center and also for our tour of the Penguin Place conservation area. This spot focuses on efforts to conserve the rare and elusive yellow-eyed penguin. We got to see some chicks and adolescents in the rehab area, and then our guide Ainsley took us on a short ride out to the coast where we first got a glimpse of the fur seals.





Ainsley then led us through the ingenious trench system to a camouflaged viewing area, where we were able to observe one of the yellow-eyed penguins near a penguin "apartment."

After our tour finished, Ainsley drove our group back to the small dock to board our Monarch Wildlife Tours boat for a one-hour wildlife cruise out around the headlands. More seals, water birds, and the big albatross.



The choppy waves out in the open water were a bit much for me, especially given that the cold rainy weather had returned. I went into the inner warm cabin to lie down for a bit and was fine once we re-entered the calm waters of the harbour.

The boat docked briefly to disembark a number of passengers, and then the rest of our smaller group continued the water voyage to return to Dunedin, enjoying free hot drinks and meat pies (not for me, of course) along the way. We arrived back at the harobour around 6:50pm and were transported back to our respective hotels. A bit of organizing and packing before doing down to the Ports o' Call bar for cocktails and food. The final full day of our tour!!!

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