Notes from the South Island (Ōtepoti / Dunedin)
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otago peninsula
Since arriving in New Zealand’s and settling in Dunedin or Ōtepoti, I’ve found myself surrounded by new sources of inspiration. Some are subtle, others impossible to ignore.
The first thing I kept noticing were the hills. They are green and rolling out in every direction. As you can see, they look manicured and messy at the same time. Patches of light and dark green shift across their surfaces depending on the clouds above. It feels familiar and very much like hills I remember in children’s storybooks. They are calm and comforting even on rainy days.
Dunedin
The birds here are hard to miss. Gulls are everywhere—the red-billed gull and the kelp gull. They patrol busy urban streets, swooping down to grab leftover food. The red billed gull can be oddly entertaining to watch, they are aggressive and noisy. They remind me of the crows in Malaysia.
Early mornings are quieter. Dunnocks move through bushes, fantails flick between branches, and I often hear bellbirds and tūī nearby. There’s also a Kererū (New Zealand) pigeon that sits by the roof of my apartment most days. It’s larger than the ones I’m used to and looks like it’s wearing a clean white apron.
One of the more unexpected experiences was seeing the Royal albatross and the Blue penguin at Pukekura / Taiaroa Head. While I was there, the wind blew at 50km an hour, making it extremely cold but also very suitable weather to spot the albatross. A fun fact is that they don’t flap their wings to lift off, rather they spread their wings to catch the wind and glide. Sometimes they even crash, landing on their face when they misjudge the strength of the wind. I also visited the Yellow-eyed penguin a.k.a the Hoiho at The Opera private eco-reserve.
queenstown
On a drive down to Queenstown, I finally saw the mountains I had heard so much about. They didn’t disappoint. Their scale is what makes them so impressive and dramatic.
In Dunedin, the weather shifts quickly. Some mornings feel like summer, while the evenings turn cold enough for a jacket. I’ve started checking the weather app daily—something I never needed to do in Malaysia.
tunnel beach, otago
