Steam punk and penguins

We journeyed to Oamaru to see one thing – penguins. We weren’t disappointed – in fact we were ecstatic.

Our host at the Highfield Mews Motel suggested we sought out the yellow-eyed penguins on the beach by Bushy Beach Road, the alternative being the blue penguins at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony. While there’s less chance of seeing yellow-eyed penguins and blue penguin sightings are virtually guaranteed, the yellow-eyed ones are viewed completely naturally whereas the blue penguins are seen as part of a tourist attraction. We spent three hours waiting and watching - it was such a delight to see the adult birds come in from the sea and their day fishing to waddle up the beach and then climb the cliffs to the nesting young ones – yes, penguins can climb cliffs!

Another “attraction” we’d wanted to see in NZ was the southern night sky. We’d booked an evening in Kaikoura with Maori astronomers but the cloudy nights put pay to that. However, the same night that we saw the penguins, we parked up down the road in total darkness view - while this night wasn’t perfect, the mass of stars was spectacular.

Steam punk? We didn’t get to visit the steam punk visitor attraction though we saw some examples of steam punk machinery in the streets. A striking contrast to the penguins.