episode description
On the doorstep of one of the country’s biggest cities, Muaūpoko /Otago Peninsula provides a breeding refuge for birds and marine mammals. Northern royal albatrosses return here every year to raise their chicks at the world’s only mainland colony. On sheltered beaches around the Peninsula, once hunted from these shores, New Zealand sea lions are returning to form a breeding colony after an absence of centuries. Each day, powerful tidal flows move in and out of the harbour feeding sponges and sea tulips, while swarms of squat lobster provide a feeding bonanza for seabirds. Throughout the summer, red billed gulls, white-fronted terns, and fairy prions all work hard to find a mate and raise their chicks. As the breeding season draws to a close, we watch all of these species race towards adulthood, before finally dispersing into and across the Southern Ocean, secure in the knowledge they will always return to the sanctuary of Muaūpoko, when their own time to breed comes around.
