We drove to Oamaru with two thoughts in mind … to see the Blue (Little) Penguin again (having seen it already on Stewart Island) and to see the Yellow-eyed Penguin.
We checked into our hotel and asked the owner about these two penguins. In Oamaru you can pay to see the Blue Penguin … we weren’t interested in that. He told us where we might see it for free. He also told us we missed the time the Yellow-eyed penguin comes back to shore … we discussed getting up early to see it depart. He said we’d have to be there by 0600 to see it. The adventure continues!
First, we went down to the dock to see if we could see the Little Penguin again. No luck … However, we saw about 1,000 “Shags” all sitting on this dock … Check it out.
Oamaru is also known for its Steampunk Museum. We knew we would be visiting it again on our Alps2Ocean bike ride (that’s a later post), but we stopped by to see it at night after trying to see the Little Penguin. Check out the cool pictures and this video.
The whole place was pretty neat!
The next morning was an early start! We made it down to where the Yellow-eyed Penguin resides and were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise.
Here’s a shot where the sun isn’t even up yet!
This next picture gives you an idea of where we were scanning for these penguins … way down on the beach.
Here’s Deb scanning the distance …
It was really dark to begin with … my phone lightened up these images. However, the sunrise was spectacular!
We also had the great fortune of seeing one of the Yellow-eyed Penguins make its way to the ocean for an early start. The pictures below are quite dark, but he’s in there.
It looks like he’s down there …
Zooming in with the camera … some white!
Even closer … that’s got to be him!
Yes! Success! You can see his shape here.
As we were making our way back to the car we had a bonus surprise of seeing this Golden Pheasant walking around the area. So cool …
It was time to head back to the hotel, pack up the car, and head out for the next stage of the adventure!
Stumbling Piper
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