If It's Thursday It Must Be Penguins
Trip Start
Sep 30, 2006
1
14
20
Trip End
Oct 27, 2006
Oamaru, New Zealand
Friday, October 20, 2006
I met several interesting travellers here at the hostel. My roommates include: a guy from Belgium here on a work visa working a a cheese factory in town and living in the hostel for a number of months; and a Canadian couple just out of college who are travelling for a couple of months in New Zealand and Australia before returning to Toronto to search for jobs (they too came to Oamaru just to see the penguins). While making dinner at the hostel tonight I met a woman from Japan who is travelling for a number of months in New Zealand, working here and there along the way.
After dinner I (along with the Canadian couple) caught the Penguin Express tour bus, which took us to visit the two penguins colonies. First, we stopped at the yellow-eyed penguin colony just before dark (they come ashore in the afternoon). I made special arrangements with a guy named Denis who used to work for the Department of Conservation to get a special tour of the colony (he's the only tour company licensed to do this). He took me down a different path than the rest of the people on the bus tour, and in fact, got me within feet of a mother penguin sitting on two eggs. She was very calm and didn't show the least bit of worry that we were there. There were about ten more penguins down on the beach and a few others up in the steep hillside, which they claw themselves up each evening to sleep. It was a pretty amanzing experience. I thought the extra $13 NZ was worth the price for the behind the scenes access. Next our bus took us to the blue penguin colony. These pebguins are less than half the size of the others and don't come ashore until nightfall. There was a big seating area and amber lights, which allow visitors to see the penguins in the dark, but the penguins cannot see that spectrum of light so to them it appears completely dark. We saw probably upwards of 100 penguins come ashore, waddle across the beach, up over the rocks and then into the brush where they stay. I walked up to the fenceline and stood silently and was able to see several penguins waddle right by me within 5-10 feet away. I also got a great view of two 6-8 week-old penguins, which came out of their den as the adults were arriving. It was a beautiful experience, and I'm glad to changed my plans slightly to fit this in. Tomorrow I plan to get an early started and drive up to Aoraki Mount Cook National Park back up in the Southern Alps.
