Chased by a Sea Lion!

This trip has seen a lot of first for us. This was never so true as the other night when we were walking along the beach at dusk with some people who were from, of all places, Lincoln, Nebraska. (Isn’t the world a small place?) We just had spent some time with these folks while viewing penguins from a viewing station located just above the ocean in a town called Donedin (it’s pronounced "done eatin") and we were making the long trek across the beach back to the parking lot. As we were walking, we looked out into the waves and noticed that a sea lion was swimming parallel to us. It seemed as though he were following us. Just then Susan (who had been slightly behind us) caught up to us, and told us that the sea lion just had chased her and the other part of our group. Initially, I was a bit skeptical, but then the sea lion started swimming to shore. And then the sea lion started hopping along the sand toward us. (Believe it or not, they’re kind of fast in the sand–particularly when they are running at you.) So we started to run. "I told you," said Susan. Perhaps I’ve been to Sea World one too many times, but it seemed as though the sea lion was playing with us, for after we ran away, he then rolled on his back and sort of pretended to play dead. So we stopped again, and, sure enough, he chased us again. When we got away from him, he then rolled on his back and laid in the sand again. And then he chased us again . . . and again . . . and again all the way across the entire beach. Yes, we got away. And, no, we didn’t lose any fingers or toes, but it sure was fun to be chased by sea lion. I only wish I knew if he was playing or not.