Shaken But Not Stirred
Trip Start
Jun 01, 2010
1
51
64
Trip End
Oct 08, 2010
Oamaru, South Island, New Zealand
Saturday, September 4, 2010
We woke to discover our fellow campers quite animated about something... "Did you feel it??!" someone asked excitedly. "Er.... no. Feel what?" we replied, wondering if we might have missed something vaguely significant.
It emerged that during the night a 7.5 earthquake had hit near Christchurch just 100km away. There had been extensive damage to the city centre and a state of emergency had been declared - but fortunately no loss of life.
It was quite a shock to hear that our fellow campers had even felt the earthquake at our campsite - for us, one bottle of wine + one 7.5-on-the-Richter-scale earthquake 100km up the road = Zzzzz.... a lovely deep uninterrupted night's sleep!...
Since then there has been about 20 aftershock quakes - but we have still not felt any of them. Fortunately, of course.... but it would be kind of exciting too...! NZ gets about 10-15 earthquakes every year but most go unnoticed. Trust us to be here when the biggest earthquake in 42 years hits...!
After this excitement, we were back on the road again, heading down the Waitaki valley past the glacial lakes of Benmore, Aviemore and Waitaki, with their brilliant blue-turquoise waters.
Our destination was Oamaru on the east coast, where there are both Blue Penguin and Yellow-Eyed Penguin colonies.
First we went out on the headland before dusk, to cliffs overlooking a beach were we spotted 5 Yellow-Eyed Pengiuns coming in for the evening...great to see them waddling up the beach and climbing up the steep cliffs.
Then we headed back to the habour to the Blue Penguin colony and conservation area, where there are about 150 little Blue Penguins. As its breeding season, one parent is out fishing for the day, returning around dusk, whilst the other is looking after the nest. We sat and waited scanning the sea for the first raft of penguins, until finally we spotted the first group surf in on the waves landing on the beach on their bellies, then waddle hurriedly up the sand and jump up the rocks. Meanwhile the calls from the parents back at the nests could be heard, calling them home.
Each group seemed to climb the rocks together, waiting for one another, before waddling quickly across the grass to their partners. Blue penguins are only about 30cm tall, so are extremely cute and amusing to watch waddle about. As its a conservation area, the staff make nightly counts of the penguins coming in - a tough task since they all look the same!
In all, five or six rafts came in - 72 penguins in total. By this time the night was full of penguin cries, and they were everywhere - not just in the breeding area, but in the car park, on the road (yes, there are "Slow, Penguins Crossing" signs!), trying to get into the visitor centre.... and it was entertaining to stand silently just watching them waddle around and hop up and down the steps.
The whole area though is a no-camera zone, so as not to disturb them with camera flashes and noise etc, so unfortunately we have no photos, just the memories!
Comments
Hola,
We have just come back from Spain and strangely knew nothing about the earthquake! Glad to know you are OK - June was showing me the entries on facebook.
Things here are the same only a portion of the front garden has slid into next door's garage foundations, well what do you expect when you don't shore up the earth! It's quite an adventure and I am thinking of writing a book!