Penguins!

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

On Sunday we saw 97 penguins and 2 bonus seals!

We waited in our van playing cards at the beach where the Yellow eyed penguins come to shore. We were going to just visit the hide along the beach to watch them but decided instead to pay the $13 and take a tour. There were just 6 of us with Denis the guide. We walked through some bush and then along a ridge before we stopped. Chris and I were a few people along so were quite surprised when we realised we stoppped really close to a Dad penguin and his 2 chicks. We stood for about half an hour taking their photos and watching along the beach to see if anymore were coming home after a hard days fishing. We spotted two more coming in but they were quite a long way away down on the beach so it was great to be with the guide right near to the ones that had stayed home to look after the chicks. Apparently they share the role 50/50 with one parent going to sea fishing one day and then staying home with the chicks the next day. As we were leaving someone from the group spotted a seal coming ashore down on the beach, buy one penguin tour and get one bonus seal - can't be bad.

After some tasty chilli-con-carne and another game of cards in our van it was time to see the Blue Penguins at their colony in Oamaru Harbour. The Blue Penguins are a rare species of penguin and are quite unique becaue they come in just as it's getting dark, they also tend to come in in groups. We found a seat in the hide and sat for about three quarters of an hour waiting for the little guys to turn up (they only stand about 25cm tall). It was extremely chilly but worth the wait to see 6 penguins surf to shore, shake themselves off and start the climb up the rocky slope. This was quite a slow process with the penguins looking around nervously. One brave one took the lead and scouted ahead. They were almost at the top of the slope when a flock of noisy seagulls flew over and scared them. Four ran back down the slope and back to the water, but the brave scout and his friend carried on to run across the road and to the grassy area near to where they nest. The other four came back out and completed their journey too. As the night progressed we saw about 5 more groups come to shore of between around 5 and 20 penguins. They all went through the same slow process and all were ashore by 10:30. Quite a lot of people left before that point but we waited until they were all back. One little fella came in the opposite direction to the others and walked along the edge of the rocks near the hide, as we were leaving we saw him walking along the path back to the car park. We were really close to him but he didn't seem too bothered. Chris went and told one of the guides so that they could keep an eye on him, there's been some problems at the centre with people running the penguins over as they drive home.
Oh, and we also saw another bonus seal.
We camped at a free site that night in the middle of nowhere which we suspect may be frequented by axeweilding murderers.

Yesterday we drove on to Dunedin. Along the way there is a beach called Moeraki that is famous for having almost spherical boulders along the shore, so we stopped in for a look. They were pretty cool. One had broken open so you could see that it's formed around a core.
We spent the rest of the day looking around Dunedin and doing a bit of shopping. The staion is the most photographed building in the whole of New Zealand, it did look nice. The first church was a cool building too.
After booking in at our campsite we took a drive out across the penisula to a beach called Seal Point in the hope that we might see a few. We walked along the path and met a few people coming the other way who had seen sealions further along the beach and a few yellow eyed penguins coming ashore. We could see a brown splodge on the sand which we distinguished with our new binoculars as a seal, so we careered down the sand dunes to take a closer look. He was a nice fella but quite sleepy and covered in flies. He moved around a bit though to prove he was alive. We sat on top of a small dune and kept our eyes peeled for more wildlife. We were rewarded with a yellow eyed penguin coming ashore, we watched him dry off and reoil his feathers but unfortunately something or someone scared him and he went back out to sea. A few minutes later he came back but went almost straight back out to sea again so hopefully what ever was scaring him went away and he managed to get back to his nest. The sandy dunes were very steep trying to get back up to the van afterwards. We didn't see any sealions, but there's a place we're going to visit a bit further up the coast where there should be some.