Penguins (and the parting of the ways)

Well my friends you have come to a bittersweet moment in our New Zealand Experience. Our little fellowship is breaking, but only for a very brief while. Katie heads East to Queenstown, and I head South to the inhospitable landscape of Invercagill, and Stewart Island. So for a week or two you will have seperate posts from us adventurers. But don't worry, we shall soon be reunited and back together once again, like Bill and Ted, Wayne and Garth, Butch and Sundance, Shrek and Donkey...
Yesterday was a fitting end to our time in Dunedin. As Katie was very keen to see Penguins, we went on a wildlife tour of the Otago penninsula, which is about thirty minutes drive from the city. For the last two days we have had rain and wind almost nonstop, and so yesterday we found ourselves on the cliff side with the wind roaring around us and the sea boiling below us- it was absolutely spectacular. The waves were smashing against the rocks at the water's edge, and so we got to see a huge collony of fur seals at close range. The pups were only a few weeks old and not strong enough to swim in the sea, so they had climbed up the cliff very near to where we could watch them. On our walk across the beach to the penguins we passed a harem of five huge sealions, all male, as females are very scarce on the penninsula. They were absolutely massive and extremely playful with each other in the cold weather, and we were able to stand only metres away from them, an experience that was both exciting and frightening! We got onto the beach at about 8 'o' clock, the time when the penguins are returning from the sea after a days fishing, and so we got to see them waddle out of the surf (and fall over a couple of times) before walking up the hill back to bed. They were yellow-eyed penguins who are very shy of humans and so it was a brilliant experience just to see them. Bye xx