Appendix - Wed evening

We decided to go out to the Otago Peninsular to watch the blue penguins coming ashore. We had been told to get there by 8 pm. It was a very hairy ride out as the road was narrow, very bendy and right beside the water.

We arrived there early to see the albatross colony first but annoyingly it was shut.
We stood in the cold waiting for it to get dark for 1 hour. Eventually we saw a long dark line in the water heading for the shore. About a dozen penguins walked up the beach and the rough grass slope and then disappeared! It was dark and was very difficult to see but no-one there could see where the penguins had gone. We decided to give up and walked up the road to the car and there they were also walking up the road! We could hear some in their nests and we heard some more squawking at each other. Gradually they all disappeared into the grass, and presumably their burrows. It was very hard to see them but was worth getting absolutely frozen.

We came back via the top road, which was equally twisty but as it was dark you couldn't see the drops, and a possum ran out in front of the van.



Wednesday 7 October

We crossed the incredibly wide Waitaki River with several fast flowing sections between the dry beds and the bridge was very, very long.

We could see the snow capped Southern Alps again.

Oamaru is a large sprawling town but the historical centre had ornate limestone buildings. We drove out to the Blue Penguin colony. The penguins live in burrows and we went into a dark shed where there were views into some of the nests and we could see the penguins and chicks.