Wildlife Encounter Aboard the Monarch

A city tour and wildlife cruise rolled into one

Buddy points out heaps of noteworthy areas and buildings of Dunedin along the shore, even his mum’s house, whey! We never expected to get such a thorough city tour included with our cruise! But hell, it is definitely enjoyed as we sit on the front deck, binoculars to our faces and the early morning sun rays warming up our skin. What’s more, the M.V. Monarch smoothly glides along the still waters of the harbour, not too fast to blow us away with the wind. They can keep their complimentary windproof jackets in the lockers as far as we are concerned.

Oystercatchers, gulls and… Are those petrels?

We get some complimentary hot drinks just before hitting the pick-up point along the Otago Peninsula. As more tour-goers get on board, a white-faced heron glides right in front of the boat. We can also see a black swan flap its wings vigorously to keep its huge body in the air. Variable and pied oystercatchers can be seen as always probing the sandy shores with their long orange beaks in their breeding pairs. Of course, there are the two types of gulls, the boystrous red billed gulls (the small ones) and the more calm and collective black backed gull (the huge ones). Something we are not expecting to see this far in the harbour is a group of petrels bobbing up and down in the water – or so we are told we are not supposed to see them by Buddy. Spoiler alert! We are meant to see these guys off shore!

Sea lion show

Even just making our way out of the harbour makes it very clear that we are about to see a hell of a lot more wildlife. Under a jetty in the distance, Robin spots a sea lion poking its head out of the water, toying with the idea of heading on land. We slowly make our way closer to see the rare New Zealand sea lion or “Hooker sea lion”. It relaxes half in the water, half out, until another bull approaches it. Usually, these beasts like to fight, but they appear to interact peacefully in the water. We get plenty of time to watch these blubbery creatures behave until we need to press on to see more of the peninsula coastlines super stars.

A huge shag colony

As we get closer to Taiaroa Head, the end of the peninsula famous for its abundance of wildlife, we spot a huge gathering of black dots on the cliff-side. A huge colony of shags have created small ledges on the cliff to make their own nests. Buddy points out shags feeding their chicks by regurgitating seafood into their mouth… Yum! Despite seeing shags a fair few times around New Zealand, from Abel Tasman to Auckland, these shags are specifically the Otago shag, only seen in this region!

Sun-kissed seals

The M.V. Monarch moves around Taiaroa Head for a better look at the marine mammals on the rocks. Blended into the rocks, they are quite hard to spot unless they move their head to check us out… It’s the New Zealand fur seal! They too are basking in the sunlight.

Although seals and humans love a bit of calm wind and sunlight to bathe in, this is not boding well for spotting royal albatross that usually circle around Taiaroa Head. But all hope is not lost! We are is a freakin’ boat! Let’s go find some offshore seabirds… Seabirds only found in the rough and cold waters of the “Roaring Forties”.