The next part of the trip around the South Island was probably the most exciting!! We were about to visit some penguins! The wonderful place that they live is called Oamaru, a tiny town on the east coast below Christchurch. It´s not a town you would visit if it wasn´t home to hundreds of Little Blue Penguins and Yellow Eyed Penguins. 2 types of penguins!! This place was heaven to us!!
We arrived just in time and made our way to Bushy Beach, following the penguin road signs (very exciting!!) to hopefully catch a glimpse of the Yellow Eyed Penguins come ashore from their day out at sea. We waited and waited.. and suddenly there was the first penguin shuffling itself along from the water onto the beach! It was amazing!! More followed..it was a great sight! Then we were told there was one very close to us hiding behind some plants. We all stayed very quiet and eventually the shy little penguin moved out into the evening sun from behind his hiding place and we all got an incredible view of the rare Yellow Eyed Penguin from a metre away!
I thought that evening could not get any better..but it did!! We rushed from Bushy Beach to the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony just down the road at 9.30pm. We sat in an outside viewing area and waited for the birds to return home from their days fishing, make their way onto the beach, up a stony ramp, and cross into the colony where their babies were waiting. This was so exciting! At about 10pm we were told the first group of penguins were swimming towards us! We looked out to sea and sure enough, there was a raft of little penguins gathering around 50 meters from shore. They waited there until all in the group were ready and then swam ashore riding the waves until they crashed down very ungracefully onto the beach! It was hilarious watching them try and get in from the water, some of them didn´t make it the first time- the waves pulled them back into the sea..but they all eventually made it ashore, shook down their wet feathers and prepared to waddle back to the colony. They waited again until all in the group were ready and then shuffled onwards towards their hungry babies..who already were waiting very impatiently outside their nests! It was such a great sight!
As soon as the adults got near their nests the babies charged out and jumped on them..they were so excited to see their parents again! Some babies were so impatient they jumped and knocked over any adult penguin that got near hoping it would be their mother...it was such a funny sight! It was very hard not to laugh out loud at these sights, but as we were only about 2 metres away from them we would have scared them! Some penguins got quite confused and even walked into the audience thinking that was the way to his nest! There was a total of about 350 Little Blue Penguins arriving back to the colony that night and it took them over an hour for all of them to return! They were just incredible and it is a sight I will never forget! (Unfortunately we we not allowed to take photos of the Little Blues so this picture above is courtesy of Google!)
We arrived just in time and made our way to Bushy Beach, following the penguin road signs (very exciting!!) to hopefully catch a glimpse of the Yellow Eyed Penguins come ashore from their day out at sea. We waited and waited.. and suddenly there was the first penguin shuffling itself along from the water onto the beach! It was amazing!! More followed..it was a great sight! Then we were told there was one very close to us hiding behind some plants. We all stayed very quiet and eventually the shy little penguin moved out into the evening sun from behind his hiding place and we all got an incredible view of the rare Yellow Eyed Penguin from a metre away!
I thought that evening could not get any better..but it did!! We rushed from Bushy Beach to the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony just down the road at 9.30pm. We sat in an outside viewing area and waited for the birds to return home from their days fishing, make their way onto the beach, up a stony ramp, and cross into the colony where their babies were waiting. This was so exciting! At about 10pm we were told the first group of penguins were swimming towards us! We looked out to sea and sure enough, there was a raft of little penguins gathering around 50 meters from shore. They waited there until all in the group were ready and then swam ashore riding the waves until they crashed down very ungracefully onto the beach! It was hilarious watching them try and get in from the water, some of them didn´t make it the first time- the waves pulled them back into the sea..but they all eventually made it ashore, shook down their wet feathers and prepared to waddle back to the colony. They waited again until all in the group were ready and then shuffled onwards towards their hungry babies..who already were waiting very impatiently outside their nests! It was such a great sight!
As soon as the adults got near their nests the babies charged out and jumped on them..they were so excited to see their parents again! Some babies were so impatient they jumped and knocked over any adult penguin that got near hoping it would be their mother...it was such a funny sight! It was very hard not to laugh out loud at these sights, but as we were only about 2 metres away from them we would have scared them! Some penguins got quite confused and even walked into the audience thinking that was the way to his nest! There was a total of about 350 Little Blue Penguins arriving back to the colony that night and it took them over an hour for all of them to return! They were just incredible and it is a sight I will never forget! (Unfortunately we we not allowed to take photos of the Little Blues so this picture above is courtesy of Google!)
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