This morning we took the 10:30 flight from New Plymouth to
Christchurch, landing at 12:00. Excellent weather conditions
afforded us excellent views over both the
Taranaki
country
side, including an aerial view of Mount Taranaki, and of South
Island as we approached Christchurch.
Leaving Christchurch airport, I read about the Oamaru Blue Penquin Colony - which was handily en route to Dunedin. So we popped.
We took the "Behind the Scenes" tour with the resident Marine Biologist Phillipa as well as the evening viewing when the Blue Penquins come ashore to feed their young. The combo ticket came to 30NZD but just the evening viewing is 20NZD per person and is very popular. This evening the viewing began at 20:15.
We found our tour with Phillipa to an excellent introduction to the Little Blue Penguins. As a non-Marine Biologist (actually an IT-boffin) I have to admit that I didn't know about Little Blue Penguins until quite recently. Until this morning actually. As it turns out, there's another colony on the other side of the water which is closed to the public and run by the omni-present Department of Conservation. Comparisons betweeen the colony in the harbour and the DOC reserve are made regularly and, at the time of our visit, no significant impact on the colony in the harbour had been found as a result of tourism in the area. Which is good.
The
evening viewing was a marvellous experience. The Little Blue
Penguins mate at the same place every year and mate for life.
Each adult penguin takes in in turn to go to see for a upto
five days to find food for their young. Around dusk, the most
amazing squaking commences as the chicks, ashore, beckon their
parents in the sea. The adults, congragating off shore, arrive
on land in a raft and will only approach in a large group.
As the first penguins scrambled ashore, another raft began
to form. Each penguin, knowing exactly where their nest is,
runs up the ramp, over the road and round the colony directly
to their young. There's no need for maps amongst - they know
where they're going. They've been here before. As more penguins
arrive, more feeding goes on and the calling dies down to a
quiet nothingness. Slowly, as meals are finished, the social
Little Blue Penguins, for it is they, come out to the colony
for a hearty gossip and slowly, but sure as they're little
and blue, the noise begins to rise again. In all it's quite
a raucous ritual.
We were scheduled to be in Dunedin this evening but, as the Blue Penguins were in town, decided to spend the night in Oamaru. The Blue Penguin event lasted until gone 10pm - and Dunedin was another 90 minutes away so checking in locally proved to be a good move.
Being breeding season, we were blessed with numbers - over 100 came ashore this evening - and this is certainly an excellent time to visit if you can.
The Blue Penguins were a great, albeit accidental, find and I'm quite sure these cute little critters will be a splendid highlight of the trip.
