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Oamaru and the Otago Pennisular
Entry 80 of 88 | show all | print this entry |
Wed Dec 15th - Day 232
From Queenstown we had planned to make our way down to Te-Anau and from there visit Milford Sound, but the weather forecast for the next four days is awful, with cold wet weather (snow down to 600m) bombarding the west coast. Som instead we decided to drive over to Oamaru on the east coast.
It was another scenically spectucalr drive through a fell runners Nirvanan, where a mountain marathon would last last a hundred years.
From Queenstown we followed the Kawarau gorge to Cromwell, skirted long and thin Lake Dunstan and passed Tarras before crossing Lupin filled Lindis valley and climbing up and through Lindis barren Pass. After the town of Omarama we drove by Lake Aviemore and Waitaki, eventually following the Waitaki River until we turned south to Oamaru.
More cabin delights awaited at Oamaru Top 10 Holiday Park (our Australian Big 4 membership means we get a 10% reduction at NZs Top 10 parks).
Within twenty five years of the first European settlers arriving, Oamaru had become one of NZs largest towns. Shipping refrigerated meat was the reason for such prosperity and today the town has NZs best preserved collection of historic commercial buildings. Very grand they are too, but Oamaru is also known for its penguins, with colonies of both Blue and Yellow Eyed Penguins close to town, and thats why we're here.
Blue Penguins return to shore at around dusk, just as the light is fading and Yellow Eyed Pengions a couple of hours earlier, enabling us to see both.
On the headland at Cape Wanbrow is Bushy Beach, where the Yellow Eyed Penguins come ashore, and just in case any decided to land an hour and a quarter before normal we were there at 5.30pm. It was cloudy, windy and vary cold.
The Yellow Eyed Penguin is one of the worlds rarest, breeding only on the southern coast of NZ and its outlying islands. The mainland population is classified as regionally endangered due to the loss of its tradtitional, coastal forest, nesting habitat and are now confined to narrow coastal margins of shrubland vegetation. These penguins are also shy and easily disturbed, so we were astounded that Bushy Beach is a public beach and despite signs asking people not to go down the steep path to the beach after 3pm, there was no warden or even a gate.
A clifftop path leads to a viewing area which overlooks the beach from fairly high up. We watched, waited and watched some more. Eventually at around 6.45 the first penguin arrived, popping his head up just beyond the surf, to check the beach out.
Unlike most, the yellow eyed penguins are solitary, preferring nest sites to be sheltered and secluded.
After another look at the beach from the waves, he surfed one in on his belly, let the water rush back out around him, then stood up and waddled ashore as only a penguin can. Once clear of the water he took a break to dry and check himself, well deserved after a full days fishing which can take him 50km offshore, diving to depths of up to 100m. Eventually he made his way into the shrubs and bushes to find his nest which is generally within 500m of the sea.
The next one didn't come ashore for another 45 minutes and after that another 5 appeared at varying spots further along the beach, but there should have been many more, and when we saw one of the birds waddle back down the sand and swim off we realised why. Some arsehole was down on the beach taking photos and spooking the very sensitive birds. Apparently its the size of humans that scare these 600-700mm high penguins. Sixty people up at the lookout and one joker down on the beach.
By the time Rene and I got over there he was making his way back up the path, but he was left with no doubt as to what we thought. Due to there being so many about our abusing of thoughtless ******* (have a go, put in your own abusive adjectives) is coming on a treat.
We calmed down on the five minute drive to Oamaru Harbour, where the Blue Penguins are properly protected.
In 1992 the colony was formed in an old limestone quarry after concern over the welfare of the penguins who were naturally inhabiting the harbour area and falling prey to cats, dogs, ferrets, stoats and cars. Since then the population of the colony has increased from 33 breeding pairs to 120 and up to 200 birds arriving home each evening in peak penguin season.
It's a great set up with an information centre and a covered grandstand viewing area which overlooks where the penguins land and their nesting area.
It's a self funding scheme, so you pay to enter the viewing area, where you must sit still, quiet and camera-less. Completely the opposite to the Yellow Eyed Penguin, the Blue Penguins are very sociable, gathering offshore in numbers (a raft) before coming ashore together.
The Blue Penguin is the worlds smallest, standing at about 300mm (1 foot) tall, they usually breed for life, but just like humans thay have a 10% divorce rate.
They really struggled to get out of the waves and onto the rocks to clamber ashore, and again hardly surprising after swimming 50km and diving up to 1000 times a day.
They seemed to be chatting to each other as they dried and shook and preened themselves before moving across the path and into their provided nest boxes, of which there are 180, set amongst the grassy banks of the old quarry.
They were wonderful and comical to watch, and they waddled like a stooped old lady carrying two heavy shopping bags into a head wind.
By the time we got back to the car after 5 hours of penguin watching, hypothermia set in.
Expenses: Fuel 29.10 Accom 71 Penguins 27 Groceries 23.30 Inet 4
Thursday Dec 16th - Day 223
The wardens at the Blue Penguin colony told us to write to the Department of Conservation about Bushy Beach, they agreed it was crazy that the Yellow Eyed had no protection.
Having acquired the office address from the visitors centre, we called in and asked them what the current situation was. Basically the government doesn't feel the number of penguins at Bushy Beach warrant upsetting the local Maoris by making the beach a reserve and preventing people going on the beach after 3pm, was their answer. The conservation officer agreed with us, but said unless the government made it a reserve, signs were all they could do.
Leaving Oamaru behind we drove south, hugging the windswept coast as far as Kakanui then turning inland to join Highway 1. At Hampden beach we walked among the strangely round Moeraki boulders before continuing south through Palmerston and rainy Dunedin to our next destination, the Otago Peninsula.
The Otago Peninsula stretches along the southern edge of Otago Harbour and it is a very scenic 55 minute drive from Dunedin to its tip at Tairoa Head. One minute we were in a large city (pop 110,000), the next we were passing lush green pastures, small bays and inlets, sandy beaches, rugged hills and volcanic landforms.
We'd rung ysterday and booked a night at a place we'd read about called Penguin Place, which is a working sheep farm that also contains a Yellow Eyed Penguin Reserve. How could we resist.
Our accommodation was a basic double room in a seperate building containing 12 double rooms, with shared kitchen, toilets, showers and lounge and a stunning view out across the peninsula and Otago Harbour.
The farm is out near the tip of the peninsula, so having met all four of the farm dogs we drove the 5 minutes to Taiaroa Head its as far as you can go and home to the worlds only mainland breeding colony of the Royal Northern Albatross. One of the worlds top birds.
Albatross normally colonise on remote storm-bound islands where they have little to fear, but at Taiaroa Head they're nesting close to a city. Luckily as far back as 1937 a local ornathologist Dr Richdale and the Otago branch of the Royal Society of NZ tried to protect the colony from interference of man or beast (dogs, cats, ferrets).
In 1951 a full time field officer was appointed as caretaker of the Albatross colony and as wildlife ranger for Otago Penisula, and because of this, the colony has slowly increased and now consists of 90-100 birds.
Today the colony is a wildlife reserve managed by the Department of Conservation. The whole area is fenced off, and the large visitors centre offer tours to a viweing observatory above the colony. Tour fees fund ongoing research and the day to day bird management programme.
Our one hour tour started at 5.30 with a short film, which as luck would have it was all about Albatrosses. Our luck continued outside because it was absolutely ideal Albatross flying conditions, as we make our way up the steep headland to the viewing observatory. The vital for flying strong wind had cleared the sky of cloud. The observatory is perched right on top of Taiaroa Head and has a glass front and sides which provide spectacular views of the penisula, harbour and out to sea. It's also right above the Albatross colony.
The birds arrive here in September, court and mate in October, build nests and lay 500g eggs in November. The parents, who mate for life, then share incubation duties for 11 weeks before the chick hatches and they take turns for the first 30-40 days guarding and feeding. Nearly twelve months after arriving and having spent 300 days caring for egg and chick the parents leave the colony to spend a year at sea before returning to breed again.
In the observatory they have exact soft toy replicas of different stages of the chicks upbringing to show the incredible size and weight they reach. At 100 days the chicks down reaches its maximum length of 12cm (6 inches) and is fed large meals of up to 2kg at a time. Both parents are out fishing and the chicks eat everything they're given, sometimes reaching over 2 stone (14kg) in weight. With no chance of take off at that kind of size, the chicks are fed much lighter meals from early August and in September when fully fledged they start wandering from the nest and testing their outstretched wings. From the moment a strong wind gets them airbourne, the young Albatross will not touch land for 5 years, teaching itself to feed whilst travelling the vast southern oceans on the roaring 40s, circumnavigating the south poles several times, before returning to Taiaroa to start another generation.
The 45 minutes we had in the observatory was without doubt one of the highlights of our trip. We love a big bird, and they don't come much bigger than the Royal Albatross without being flightless. Picture a bird with the head and body of a Dodo and the wings of a B52 bomber, gliding past 2 feet from your face. That's what it was like in the glass observatory. The Albatross were gliding a loop round the headland, and part of the loop came right past us. It was incredible and until you see these majestic birds that close up, you have no real comprehension as to how massive they are. Not just their ten foot wingspan, but their bodies (they stand hip high) and amazingly smilley hooked beaks.
Every few seconds an Albatross flew by for the 45 minutes we were there. We were also witness to the fascinating social life of the colony, with its chick guarding mothers, courting couples and posturing, show off adolescents.
It's a quality set up and the Royal Albatross of Taiaroa Head are protected and thriving.
We just made it back to Penguin Place in time to jump on the bus for the start of our tour of the Yellow Eyed Penguin Reserve, which began thanks to the concerns and foresight of the farmer/landowner 20 years ago, who realised much of the penguins natural nesting habitat was being trampled by cattle and sheep.
The reserve is a private conservation effort t osave the worlds most endangered penguin from extinsion and funded entirely through profits from the tours. These profits enable them to replant breeding habitat, build nest sites, trap predators, care for sick and neglected birds and carry out their own research programme.
The small bus follows a private road through the farm to the reserve, which consists of a headland, a beach and large area behind the beach which has been tranformed into a penguins dream habitat.
Our guide Peter, who had a slight Brummy accent and looked like Father Christmas, walked us round the headland first to view a colony of gulls and the NZ fur seals who were lounging about the rocks. The wind had died down, and the sun was low in the sky as we watched the first penguin waddle onto the beach below. The Yellow Eyed are much more upright than the Blue penguins and look like gunslingers in a western with their hnds hovering over their guns.
It was a picture postcard beach, with pristine sand and inviting waves. Two more penguins soon joined the first and they stood drying, preening and generally ignoring each other. Peter hurried us alonga bush concealed path to the area behind the beach. It's a bit like the Ayres at home, where the beach is backed by read covered sand banks and further back still are areas of gently rolling grass growing in the sandy soil. Only here amongst the grassy areas, were all kinds of shrubs, bushes, ponds, small palm trees and well hidden nest boxes.
The amazing and unique part of the reserve is its system of hides and tunnels which criss cross the whole area, allowing close range viewing and photography without any disturbance to the penguins.
The tunnels are dug about 4ft into the ground and are covered by camouflage netting supported on basic A frames, which allow any normal sized person to walk along without ducking. You can't see out of the tunnels and the penguins can't see you. However the tunnels lead to a number of strategically placed hides, where you can see out through a small gap that runs right around the hide. Its ingenious, and we spent a fantastic hour running after Peter as we followed 3 different penguins from beach to nest. At times we were only a couple of feet away and could see every tiny detail of these beautiful 2ft tall birds, especially the bright yellow band which passes through the line of the eyes and gives them their name.
Peters enthusiasm was infectious and only impending darkness curtailed the wildlife viewing, half ann hour later than scheduled. An incredible amount of work has been carried out here and the result is a world class reserve, whose work may well assure the future of this rare and wonderful bird. Eco tourism at its very best.
Expenses: Accom 40 fuel 30 Pcards 2.70 Groceries 25.55 Penguin tour 60 Albatross tour 50 photos 6.80
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