Penguins! Little blue ones this time...

We stop at the Moeraki boulders on the way to Oamaru - weird, alien-like round boulders which have been eroded from the cliffs and rolled/fallen out onto the beach. Without knowing how they came to be (guess who didn't read the info board before going down to the beach to look), it was a weird experience to suddenly be confronted with the boulders, at least thirty of them, of varying sizes, scattered over the sand.

I had considered skipping over Oamaru and heading straight on to Lake Tekapo, but I'm so glad I didn't! All I'd heard of it before the bus drove into town was about the little blue penguins which you could watch coming in to nest at night in a special protected area around the harbour, which sounded cool enough to warrant a night at least. But when we arrived into town it was so pretty - lots of old, Victorian buildings built of white Oamaru stone, with a particularly interesting street made up entirely of older buildings, a bakery, warehouses and old stables now converted to shops, a theatre and sculpture and art galleries. It's unlike any other town I've seen in NZ - the buildings are so much older and easier on the eye that the sprawling more modern style of other towns and cities. I spent the afternooon (wrapped up in all my clothes again!) wandering round down the long, wide mainstreet and into the historic/art quarter, before my appointment with the penguins in the evening.

The penguins begin to return to their nesting area around dusk, so I walked up to the Blue Penguin centre and took my seat in the stand of wooden benches built facing the rock 'ramp' which the penguins clamber up to reach their protected area of nest-boxes. There are special lights which the penguins can't see, so we could watch them as the light faded. There's an absolute ban on photography and filming, and we had to keep very still and quiet, so they won't be scared off from returning to the reserve.

The blue penguins are very cute, even more so than the yellow-eyeds because they're so small. They waddle up the ramp in groups (they form into 'rafts' as dusk falls to give themselves protection-in-numbers when swimming in towards the coast) and pause, worriedly, scouting out for threats, before crossing the open two-metre or so patch of land, wiggling under the fence and then splitting up and running across the grass to their respective nest-boxes. After a few minutes a loud, eerie noise starts up - at first I assume it's possums, but then the guide tells us it's actually the penguins - like the yellow eyeds they can be extremely loud when they feel like it!

written by

LizIsHere on March 18, 2010 from Oamaru, New Zealand

from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010

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