"Compared to other parts of New Zealand, the wildlife here is so in your face, especially around the Otago coast.
"People come from all over the world to see it," he said.
This was illustrated recently by the southern right whale spotted swimming near Blackhead.
Other rare wildlife on the Otago coast includes Hectors dolphins/upokohue, sea lions/pakake, yellow-eyed penguins/hoiho, albatrosses/toroa and jewelled geckos/moko kakariki, to name a few.
Further inland are grand and Otago skinks/mokomoko and yellowhead/mohua.
"We shouldn't take our wildlife for granted and abuse them. We're lucky to have these animals sharing the land and sea with us and should do everything we can to encourage, protect and enjoy them.
"None of them are common nationally and, in fact, there aren't many of these animals left in the world."
Conservation of our wildlife is paying off.
The first egg hatched at the Taiaroa Head royal albatross colony in the 1930s and now about 25 albatrosses a year hatch.
Nearly 500 breeding pairs of yellow-eyed penguins live in coastal Otago reserves.
Grand and Otago skinks are being protected by Doc at Macraes and by the Central Otago Ecological Trust in Alexandra.
"Once Otago had hundreds of thousands of them, but they're now down to just a few thousand."
Sea lions, whose status has been lifted to nationally critical, started to breed again on the mainland in 1994. Since then, 45 pups have been born near Otago Peninsula.
