Looking for penguins

The drive from Mt. Cook to Oamaru was rather boring. The scenery is nice, but once you get used to the mountains, the moderate hills in this part of the country don't impress you any more. In any case we weren't going to Oamaru and the east coast for the views, but mainly for the wildlife, especially the yellow-eyed penguins, unique to New Zealand.

We were also looking forward to try out camping with the tent that we had bought in Queenstown a few days before. We still didn't have a whole camping set though, just the tent and two thin mats. We'd have to use our clothes as pillows, and hope that the temperature wouldn't drop too much at night. Luckily some camping in New Zealand offer a fully equipped kitchen to their guests, so at least we could enjoy a hot meal even without owning any cooking gear.

No need for a hammer, just look for a stone large enough

The town of Oamaru is nice, but you can see it in a very short time. This left us plenty of time to spend looking out for yellow-eyed and blue penguins. Eventually we managed to see three of the first type from a viewpoint up a cliff. We were so far away that we actually just saw three black-and-white blobs getting out of the water and walking goofily along the beach. The blue ones are easier to see, if you are willing to pay about 20 euros per person to see them. We managed to sneak in and see them from a little bit further away, before an employee of the park came to kick us out. Nevertheless, mission accomplished!

Penguins this way

Bushy Beach at Oamaru where the yellow-eyed penguins nest

Very very far away

The little spots in the middle are the blue penguins (not only are we far away, they are also very small)

The night in the tent wasn't bad at all, and we decided to try camping again at our next stop, Portobello, on the Otago peninsula. Along the way we stopped at Moeraki to see the famous "boulders", curious spherical rock formations that lie on the beach. It's a good setting for pictures.

When we arrived in the Otago peninsula the sun was shining, and since the weather forecast for the following days wasn't too good we went out to explore the place as soon as our tent was set up. The two main attractions of the peninsula are royal albatross and penguins. The first can be seen paying about 40 euros at the observation centre, or otherwise comfortably observed for free from a viewpoint a few meters away. We obviously chose the cheapo option.

Views from Otago Peninsula

Royal Albatross - the picture doesn't show it but it is huge!

To see the penguins you don't have to pay, but the long and exhausting hike on sand dunes can be dissuasive enough. We went for it, even knowing that the easy walk downhill would be much harder on our way back. We spent some time at the view hide and were lucky enough to spot a couple of young yellow-eyed penguins. According to what the park ranger said, at this time of the year they can spend days out at sea chasing food. We have been lucky to see them twice in a couple of days, even if from quite a distance.

Sheep are everywhere in New Zealand

Views from the hideout - you can't see it (we hardly could) but there were two penguins down by the water

Walking 1 km straight up in the sand is a tough job

The night was colder and harder than the previous one, as temperatures in the south are lower. We could barely sleep, and the first thing that we did the next morning was to book a room at a nice hostel in Curio Bay, our next destination. The camping experiment will be put on hold for the next few days.

The road that took us to Curio Bay, the so called Southern Scenic Route, was much less interesting than what we had expected. On the other hand the village itself is in a spectacular location, and the surrounding area is rich in wildlife. In the late afternoon yellow-eyed penguins come ashore. We have seen them twice already, but apparently the penguins here are less shy than their cousins from the north, and can be seen from up close. Without much expectation we sat on the beach and spent almost one hour waiting for them to come. The long wait was more than compensated. Two young specimens came out of the bush and spent quite some time walking around and swimming in front of us, maybe twenty meters from where we stayed. At this point we consider our search for yellow-eyed penguins completed successfully.

Curio Bay

At last!

Another attraction of the bay are the rare Hector Dolphins (found only in New Zealand) that swim right next to the shore, between surfers and kayaks, at almost any time of the day. We saw many of them the following morning, and even if the weather wasn't inviting at all, we would have loved to get in the water with them. Too bad that we had already booked an accommodation in Te Anau and we had another long drive ahead to get there. Curio Bay goes straight into the list of places where I would like to come back to spend some more time.

This is where the dolphins come for a swim