When we decided to leave Stuart Island a day earlier than originally planned, our mail goal was to have more time to find and photograph Penguins in the Dunedin area. As we looked into this, we came across Elm Wildlife Tours, which offered a 6-hour afternoon and evening trip, to see penguins, fur seals, sea lions, and whatever else they could find. We immediately called up, and booked a trip with them, the day before we'd fly out of Dunedin, heading to Fiji.

It ended up being a great trip, spoiled only by pretty dense fog (naturally!). If it weren't for this, it would have been truly spectacular (in terms of photographic opportunities), but I'm reasonably pleased with the shots I came back, considering the conditions. We got quite close to the penguins, and in fact one came out of the sea, and waddled by within 15 feet of my wife! Because of the fog, the images were quite low in contrast (occupying a fairly narrow slice in the histogram), so required aggressive levels and curves corrections to salvage them. But it was truly an experience of a lifetime.