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Other entries in Oamaru

Hoiho, Hoiho Its Off To Oamaru We Go.

After a night of incessant rain we awoke to find a very different looking campsite and surrounding mountains. It was obviously snow and not rain and was very cold, -2 degrees we heard on the radio.  We did not hang around long and as soon as Van was warmed up and ready to go we hit the road towards the coastal town of Oamaru. 

Oamaru is famous for its colony of Little Blue Penguins, which are the worlds’ smallest, and the Yellow-Eyed Penguins or Hoiho in Maori, which are the worlds’ most rarest type.  After booking into the campsite we headed back to town to visit a local cheese factory where we had a little tasting session and bought some locally made Waitaki camembert cheese from the Whitestone Cheese Company. (www.whitestonecheese.co.nz)  With our wedge of gooey cheese we drove up to a lookout point for our lunch with was a nice spot with views of the ocean and the surrounding hills covered in snow.  We walked around the pretty town that has an historic precinct full of buildings made from solid local limestone.

The Yellow-Eyed penguins come ashore each evening after a hard days fishing and swimming at Bushy Beach, where they can be observed coming out of the water and climb up the cliffs to nest. They take about 20 mins from exiting the water to reach the top of the cliffs.  When we arrived there was only one fully grown adult male at the top who was only 1m away from us and posed beautifully for us – which is quite ironic as they are supposed to be very shy.  We waited for about an hour for his friends to come ashore but only saw 6 surf the waves in then stumble up the beach, where they waited at the foot of the cliffs obviously aware of the awaiting tourist paparazzi at the top.  Luckily I got loads of pictures of the one penguin that would not look out of place in a National Geographic Magazine.    (www.yellow-eyedpenguin.org.nz)

Next stop was the little blue penguin colony on the other side of the headland. As we drove up to it we passed an old jetty that was swarming with literally 1000’s of shags and cormorants or something from that genus all watching the sunset.  At the colony we joined a tour and went to sit out in the cold for 20 mins to be told all about the penguins and what they get up to before the first arrivals to shore turned up.  They leave each morning before sunrise and head off to fish about 8km away then return at dusk. Before landing on the rocky ramp and heading up to nest they muster just off shore in groups, called rafts, of up to 20 penguins.  This is probably done mainly for their safety from sharks and seas.  The sea was very rough but they all managed to get ashore safely even though some seem to be tossed against the rocks and struggle to stay up the right way.  Once up the ramp they all preen their feathers ready for tomorrow then cross over to their nests that have been built under ground and go their separate ways.  A fully grown adult weighs only 1kg and measures 12 inches so they are really tiny, the yellow-eyed guys were probably 26 inches tall and weigh up to 7kg.  They do make an awful racket as they say their good nights to one another.  It was great to see them in the wild but we could not take any photos but lots more can found out at www.penguins.co.nz.
Oamaru was a lovely quaint little place to stop for a few days but had we stayed any longer we may have put the cheese factory out of business and stolen a few penguins for pets.

Billy and Jude

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