Saturday 12th March: Cloudy sunshine, cool and 8°C to 15°C
Day in Dunedin: 9.00am to 4.00pm; 62k round trip to Albatross nesting at Taiaroa Head
Picture perfect day in Dunedin
Birdlife around harbour
On the main road to Taiaroa Head
Dunedin Harbour
Cycle train into wind, Graham's last
New Zealand in dilemma over flag
One last hill before Taiaroa Head
Lunch in sun out of wind
Lunch - peanut paste, thick butter and cheese on a Pam's Rice Cracker
Today's highlight was the whole day - cycling a circuit out to Taiaroa Head, famous for the Nesting Royal Albatross.
A leisurely start at about 8am to our own breakfast of tea, muesli and yoghurt - and toast for some. At 9.00am we cycle off down the steep hills to the Dunedin train station where we meet Sean, Helen, Christian and Jeff before heading out along the busy main road around Dunedin harbour to Taiaroa Head, just over 60 round trip. Its a cool 5°C, not freezing, but cool enough for 2 jackets, beani and gloves and we're riding into the wind which has abated somewhat over the past few days.
There's loads of birds all around the picturesque harbour as we find it easiest to get into a cycle train, preferably with us girls sitting behind a big strong fella like Ian, Milton or Graham - opps, forget I said that! I've just seen the photos with Graham tucked in at the end of a train for most of the way!
There's just one hill as we near the Taiaroa Head and it's tough going into the wind. Thre's a Visitor's centre at the Heads with a cafe which some of us visit whilst others have peanut paste, thick butter and cheese on a Pam's Rice Cracker - this is a good formula for a European hike - easy - and rice crackers don't weigh much!
After lunch, there's time to explore the visitors centre and the learn about the history of the Royal Albatross and it's breeding at Taiaroa Head. Each pair of birds raise just one chick every two years, and they usually mate for life, despite long separations at sea. It takes almost a full year for these large seabirds to raise a single chick. When fully grown theay weigh up to 8.5kg, have a wing span of 3.3 metres, and can fly 1800km in a day at speeds of up to 130kph. There's millions of birds buzzing around the heads, seals swimming or sunning themselves on rocks, blue penguins hiding in holes, and rabbits running around.
At 2pm, time to start cycling back. The wind is at our backs and its a breeze cycling back at more that 30kph on our fat tyred mountain bikes, but the hardest part of teh day is pushing our bikes up the two big hills to our Heriot Lodge Apartment. With a few breaks every now and then, we're back in 2 hrs by 4pm and ready for a few cold beers while waiting for our Vertical Velocity bike man to pick up our bikes, and deliver our excess luggage.
At 7pm, we meet at Etrusco, an Italian Restaurant in Dunedin. Packed full, we had booked the night before for 10, and famous for pizza and spaghetti etc. It's all very nice as we say our farewells to Helen, Jeff, Sean and Christian, then back to Heriot Lane for a cup of tea and chocolate before bed.
Tomorrow is our last day of a fabulous trip.
