We stayed in Geraldine last night and then drove down to Oamaru, with a lunch stop at Timaru.
In the evening we went to the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony to see some penguins coming ashore at dusk. These blue penguins are the smallest in the world, at around 30cm tall.
We weren’t allowed to take any photos because the clicking and flashing would scare them off. Also, they didn’t start coming ashore till it got dark, so it would have been very difficult to get some shots of them anyhow. We did however see some sea lions lounging around, right in the path of the penguins. Luckily this type of sea lion did not feed off the penguins so they were safe!
The penguins leave around 3AM in the morning and then return from around 9PM. They swim out to feed and travel a distance of around 50km.
When they return to the shore they meet up with other penguins and form a ‘raft’ – this is a new collective noun we learnt! Then they come in together in small groups – apparently this helps them to navigate their way back to their particular shoreline.
They have eggs or young chicks waiting for them in their nests – we heard the chicks calling impatiently for their parent – they were waiting for their regurgitated feast!
