The Royal Albatross

The Albatross has long been a creature of reverence and superstition. Well before Coleridge penned his 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', seafarers believed that when their captains died their souls took the form of an albatross to wander the oceans forever.

The Royal Albatross, one of the largest seabirds, is a gliding phenomenon. It regularly circumnavigates the globe, sometimes aloft for days on end. Ranging effortlessly on the prevailing winds, it spends little more than a tenth of its long life on land.

Taiaroa Head on the Otago Peninsula is unique, having the only ...