Royal Albatross Centre

When I awoke the next morning and fired up my laptop, all hell was breaking loose in the world.

It took awhile to figure out what was going on. Apparently, 45th had issued an order banning travel from most of Europe for the next 30 days and Americans in Europe were scrambling to get home before it went into effect. It was all so confusing that I actually watched the entire long, rambling press conference which ultimately left me feeling more confused than ever. What did this mean? Would the United States soon completely close its borders to all travel from abroad? It was a week and a half before we were scheuled to fly home. Should we try to change our flight or continue with our trip?

Clearly, coffee was required before we could make a decision. We had noticed a sign at the pub where we had eaten dinner the night before that said they served breakfast, and since we had no desire to eat at one of the many American fast food chains in the neighborhood, we headed back to it. Apparently, it was not a popular place to eat in the morning. The staff seemed surprised we were there and finally confessed that they weren't sure the chef was going to show up. Eventually they agreed to take our orders and served us some coffee. Then they vanished for over a half hour which gave us plenty of time to discuss our options.

Our minds were full of misinformation. At that time, we thought that COVID-19 was no more dangerous than the flu. Although we fall into the high risk category because of our ages, we're basically healthy so we weren't particularly worried. The New Zealand government was advising people to wash their hands a lot and socially distance whenever possible. Would it really be so bad if the US closed its borders and we were stuck in New Zealand for awhile? Since we're retired, we had no jobs to return to, and our social security and pension checks would presumably continue to be deposited in our bank account. By the time breakfast finally arrived at our table, we had decided to carry on with our original plan for the day - exploring the Otago Peninsula.

Our ultimate destination was the Royal Albatross Center at the far end of the peninsula, and there were two ways to get there - the high road and the low road. We chose the high road, and soon arrived at this scenic spot.

In contrast to all the craziness that seemed to be going on in the world, the sheep grazing on the hillside were a comforting, peaceful, very-New Zealand scene.

That's our trusty rental SUV in the picture on the right below.

Unfortunately, after this lookout, the ride got a lot more exciting. The road became narrower and very twisty. Since we're used to driving on the other side of the road, Walt's instict is to drive too far to the the left side of the lane because he feels like he's heading for a collision with the on-coming traffic, and I always feel like we're about to go off the side of the road which isn't so bad if the highway has a flat shoulder, but is terrifying if there is a steep drop to the left as there was in this case. And so we spent the next half hour or so creeping along with me waving my arm frantically and yelling "Over! Over!" and Walt gritting his teeth. Finally the road descended and we emerged gratefully to more scenic views.

We pulled into a deserted park and enjoyed the empty beach.

It was a relief to finally pull into the parking lot of the Royal Albatros Centre. The unassuming building sits on a hill overlooking a small bay in one direction and the sea in the other. The centre offers Albatross Tours, but we were feeling too distracted to arrange for one. They also offer Blue Penguin Tours, but those are held around sunset when the penguins return to their nests after a day spent foraging at sea.

We wandered through the building enjoying the exhibits, and then headed outside to the walkway that overlooks the ocean. We spotted several seals in the water.

Albatross flew above our heads.

Here is one final shot taken from the Royal Albatross Centre.

We had no desire to tackle the high road again so we returned to our hotel via the low road along the water. Although we experienced many delays due to road construction, it was a much less scary ride.