Dunedin, Oamaru and the penguins.

Trip Start Aug 31, 2005
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Trip End Feb 16, 2006


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Flag of New Zealand  ,
Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Another sunny (ish) day, we were very lazy and did nothing until 12pm. We then drove into town and saw the worlds' steepest road (no we didn't walk up it). After that we just pottered around town.
In the evening we went for a drive to see some views and on the way a sheep (there are thousands out here)darted in front of my car, later on he was still wondering. He had obviously gotten out of the field and couldn't get back, poor sheep. We continued on to a beach where yellow-eyed penguins (very rare only exist in NZ)come to nest at night. Had great fun sliding down the sand dunes (not so much fun walking up them again!). We hid in a wooden house thing built for the purpose and the penguins came in, about 8 altogether. Was funny to watch then struggling to get out due to waves. A stupid male approached them and scared them off so they went scurrying up the rocks. Very annoying but could still see them, one get stuck and when we left he still couldn't work out how to get up 01 Stunning penguin beach.
01 Stunning penguin beach.
 ! Also saw a sea lion going back into sea, was funny to watch as took him ages to get out, not very elegant.

The next day we drove to Oamaru, that evening we went and saw more yellow-eyed penguins. It is excellent seeing them in the wild. We then went to a place to see blue -eyed penguins (where the sign was, see photo), this place was monitored so a bit set up although the penguins would still naturally come there. Again very cute and only about 30cm tall. Over 1 hundred of these came in, fuony to see them all waddling up and crossing together to go to their nesting boxes. Saw sime babies aswell.

All in all a fantastic experience, they were so cute.
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