For our last day in New Zealand we went on an eco tour allllllll day. We took a short ride to the Royal Albatross center where they are trying to increase the albatross population. Apparently when fishermen moved to dolphin safe nets it is now no longer albatross safe. Also they eat an exceptional amount of plastic out of the ocean. This facility is trying to increase breeding ground and give them a safe place to leave their babies when they go out to the ocean in search of food.
After the albatross center, we headed on a 30 minute drive through the country side and along the bay to get to the mammal reserve. We got to see fur seals, sea lions, and yellow eyed penguins. Apparently the yellow eyed penguins and sea lions are the rarest in the world so this beach area is protected to help increase the penguin population but apparently the sea lions have begun eating the penguins.
We had to climb crazy hills...again. But I got some amazing photos! We were able to get within ten feet of the sea lions! They chased us at one point but they gave up lol. Then we watched a bunch of penguins pop out of the ocean and climb a hill. It was so cute and funny at the same time.
The fur seals were flopping around on the rocks and being super cute. We saw about twenty babies and moms. Some were playing in a pool that had formed on the rocks until their moms started calling them. Hilarious.
I got some great shots of the ocean and the views were ridiculous. Kyle said he was mad because the sheep grazing there had amazing views every day and we get to look at corn. Not fair.
We had Domino's for dinner. Soooooooo good. We all inhaled our pizzas. Now we are prepping to watch Lord of the Rings 2. We watched the first one last night and saw all the scenes we got to see filming locations. Tomorrow we fly to Sydney. Fingers crossed the ash cloud won't interfere with our flight!
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