BEFORE GETTING ON HIGHWAY 1 SOUTH we needed to stop by The Warehouse, “Where everyone gets a bargain,” to exchange some DVD-R’s we had purchased the previous day. We accidentally bought 4X speed instead of 8X. Jon ran into The Warehouse, which is basically a New Zealand version of Wal-Mart, to exchange the discs for the right ones.
“They wouldn’t let me return them. They said if they’ve been in the computer we can’t return them,” Jon came reporting back.
“We’ll see about that!”
We drove to the other end of town to the other Warehouse. Once again Jon ran in and came out a few minutes later without the 4X DVD’s and a new thing of 8X.
Soon we were on our way down the 1 South towards Oamaru. We had a couple hundred clicks in front of us, but we took our time leisurely taking in the beautiful South Island of New Zealand’s East Coast.
WE ARRIVED IN THE TOWN OF OAMARU AT 4PM, it was the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere and the sun was on the plunge.
“Let’s go straight over to the Penguin Beach. They’re supposed to come out of the water at dusk.”
We drove out onto the peninsula towards the beach. We knew we were getting close when we saw a Penguin Crossing sign. There was a beautiful visitors center set up, with tons of information on the penguins breeding activities, how many eggs have been laid this season, how many penguins came ashore last evening, etc.
“Hi, how do we see the penguins?” I asked the Penguin man.
“Well we estimate the Blue penguins to be arriving by about 5:30 this evening, but you can go around the other side of the peninsula and catch the Yellow eyed penguins now,” he told us.
We hustled back into the camper and drove around the other side of the peninsula, hiked up to the lookout on a cliff overlooking the sea and waited. The wind was blowing and whipping at us, and a heavy sea spray blew through the air stinging our eyes. The day had grown really cold and the wind-chill at the beach made it feel like we were popsicles in a freezer.
“Look, in the water!” one of the other popsicles yelled.
There in the choppy waves was the first Yellow-Eyed penguin of the evening, returning home from his day out fishing the ocean. He dove and tumbled in the waves for a good 10 minutes before finally riding a wave onto shore and waddling up.
“Waaaah, waaah, woooh,” Mr. Penguin yelled.
We watched him waddle the beach for a bit before disappearing into his hole in the cliffs.
Like Axl Rose once said “All we need is just a little patience.” We sat and waited and waited and watched and waited and watched and froze and “A PENGUIN! No two!” they were riding in on a wave together, squeaking and yelling at each other. They frolicked and played in the waves a bit, just like the other guy and then waddled ashore. They were far in the distance, but I attempted to photograph the rare yellow-eyed penguin as best I could. We hung out a little while longer and observed 4 more penguins roll in before calling it quits, from being almost hypothermic, not bored.
WE WARMED UP BACK IN THE CAMPER and added a few more clothes to what we were already wearing and then drove back across the peninsula to view the very rare Blue Penguins, who are also the smallest penguins in the world. Here at the Blue Penguin Colony, they have transformed an area of beachfront into Blue Penguin Beverly Hills. Several wood boxes have been built in their natural habitat and wired off to keep the little blue guys safe from predators. They also monitor their breeding and have reported a great success rate of egg laying and growth amongst the community.
We sat up in the viewing stand and waited for the penguins to float in.
“Good evening everyone, fist I’ll let you know that we do not allow photos.”
“Awwww!” The entire group groaned all together.
“We used to allow photos without flash, but some people couldn’t seem to follow those rules, and the flashes scared the penguins. We try to provided a safe and natural environment for the penguins so we’ve now banned all photography and video, sorry.”
I put my camera away, which I had already set up for my night shots.
“Last night our first raft of penguins arrived at ten of six,” the penguin boy announced. “These penguins pair up for several years staying with the same partner, however we do have a divorce rate of about 30%. We’ve already had two eggs laid this season which is early, but great. We believe we’ll have two batches of eggs this year. What the penguins will do after laying eggs is take turns sitting on the eggs, while their partner goes out to fish. They’ll take turns everyday for 35 days, which is how long the egg needs to incubate. Then when the chicks are born, both parents need to go out and fish to get enough for the babies. So the babies are home alone, but no worries here, they are completely protected from predators and are flourishing.”
A lone penguin hopped up on the rocks.
“A raft should be coming in soon,” we were told in penguin terminology.
“OK OUR FIRST RAFT HAS ARRIVED.”
I though it was funny how they were called rafts, but when we saw how they rode a wave in all lined up and bunched together, we got the lingo.
The little guys hopped up and out of the water, hopped up on the rocks and stood there for a while preening and picking at their feathers.
“They need to dry their feathers,” Penguin boy narrated.
In the field across the way the partner penguins began to emerge and the penguin show started.
“Waaa ggggggaaaaaa ggggggaaaaaaaa, waaaa ggggggaaaaaaa ggggggaaaa!” they called out to their counterparts on the rocks.
The guys who just came out of the chilly ocean were still sitting on the rocks drying and until one penguin made a move towards home they were stationary. They waddled up the rocks with a few hops, looked both ways before crossing the dirt road and then ran-waddled under their fence and into their neighborhood. They continued to run in their raft or I suppose now that they were on lad this term should be changed to gaggle or something.
It’s humanly impossible to watch a group of penguins waddle-run without cracking up and the stands laughed out loud.
Soon we were watching another raft come in and then another followed by yet another, some of the penguins waddled right over to within a ½ foot of us primates, completely undisturbed by our presence. When it was believed all the penguins had returned to the hood for the night the final count was 55, pretty good. The previous night there were only 35.
Most of the crowd left having seen the waddling show, but we and a British family also with a 7 year-old boy stayed a bit longer.
“This is when it gets really interesting,” said a very enthusiastic Penguin conservationalist. “Now that they’re all back for the night they have some real socialization,’ she pointed to the penguins standing in front of their holes wailing at the top of their lungs.
Some penguins chased each other and got into fights, with some wild beak thumping, other penguins were happier making love not war.
“Look at those penguins, he’s giving her a back massage,” said the little boy from Wales.
“Oh, yeah a back massage,” I looked at Quinn with wide eyes, telling him not to say anything. Quinn knew exactly what they were doing and smiled at me in understandance.
You can see all our penguin pictures in the New Zealand Photo Album.
Hey cute penguins!! I would like to know your exact coordinates, so I can see them as well.
Huwa gubbi awi wa kizma kamen. Ain't that right UG?
Posted by: Victoria Sokkar | July 04, 2005 at 02:01 AM
Hey Vicky--
I think it's illegal now to speak Arabic in the US, you better watch out what you say. LOL
However that statement is so true! Too bad the person it's meant for is too stupid to figure it out!!!!
Posted by: Heather to Vicky | July 04, 2005 at 02:42 AM