Sandfly Bay, Otago Peninsular

Sandfly Bay, Otago Peninsular*****

We have heard of the famous tours around the peninsular for viewing the Royal Albatross and Yellow eyed penguins. When we ask at the I-site if there were any foc public beaches we could go to see the penguins, the answer was no. But we saw form Lonely planet that we could actually go to the DOC hide at Sandfly Bay and observe the penguins there. So off we went that afternoon, (the penguins are best seen after 3pm) and boy it was a steep decline down the beach, crossing the sand dunes. The way back up is needless to say, exhausting!

Beautiful flowers along the track down the sand dunes

But it was worth the hike, because we don't need to pay the costly tours to view this cute fella! There is a DOC volunteer ranger on duty and she showed us where to go. It is about 40min walk to the hide (observation hut) and we were there right on time. A yellow eyed penguin is just making its way up the hill. They are such shy creatures, and if they see anyone or other penguins, they will not come out of the sea. So we have to be very alert, staying at least 100m from the penguins, if any ;) along the beach, they are many male sea lions laying on the beach.

This lil fella making his way up to feed his wife and little ones

(there is of course an easier place to view penguins than here, at Curio Bay ;))

Check out our post for Curio Bay

Whitebait patties

Since we cannot freedom camp around Dunedin and Otago peninsular, we stayed at Portobello caravan park (cost us $32 for nonpower, cheapest around Dunedin, and the only holiday park in the peninsular). We have dinner only at 10pm, all because of the penguin observation. And here's our dinner, the must try whitebait patties in NZ. A delicacy since it is so expensive. Honestly, it did not taste that yummy as patty (butter fried with egg in sandwich, the kiwi way of eating whitebait), but it taste quite nice when fried in butter alone. We thought it taste kind of similar with anchovies in Malaysia. So not value for money, in our humble opinion :p