BoomerGirl Diary

After a couple of weeks traveling by public transportation, we felt ready to rent another car and do some more driving on the left. We decided to visit Oamaru and Dunedin for some bird watching and a factory tour.

Driving south from Christchurch through sheep farms, vineyards and dairies, we arrived at the seaside town of Oamaru. Oamaru has put itself on the tourists’ map by building some protection for blue penguins as well as additional nesting burrows along the shoreline.

Next to this conserved area, stadium-style seating has been built so that tourists can comfortably sit and watch the blue penguins come to shore each evening. There is an admission charge for this seating, and advance booking is suggested. Tour buses full of folks hoping to view the nightly arrival of the sea birds also arrive nightly.

We arrive a bit too early to go directly to the blue penguin site, so instead we drive on out to another area of the shore where yellow-eyed penguins can be seen. This adventure takes us to a path along the top of a steep coastal cliff to a penguin-viewing hut perched over the shore far below. We spend the better part of an hour scanning the sea for any signs of penguins and begin to think it is hopeless, when we see some other bird watchers along the path start pointing to the shore.

At last, penguins!

But no, it is only a fur seal. Another bit of impatient waiting later, we are rewarded by a lone yellow-eyed penguin arriving on the beach. It quickly walks over to some brush and disappears.

About then we realize that there are two penguins right in front of us, under a scrubby bush. We never pictured them being able to climb this high up on the cliff, but there they are, preening each other. They satisfy our picture-taking hopes, and then a bit later second penguin arrives on the shore.

Now it is late enough in the evening for the blue penguins to begin arriving, so we head back to the Blue Penguin Encounter site and take our seats to wait. The first blue penguins we see appear at the openings of burrow boxes that have been provided for them. We are told that when these birds molt their feathers, they go through a brief period of not being able to go to sea. This time is spent in the burrows, trying to keep cool during the day, with the birds only coming out at night. We are surprised by how noisy these birds are as they stretch their legs and wings.

Eventually, the first group of returning blue penguins arrives, hopping up the rocks of the shore. They are comically indecisive about crossing the open area between the rocks and the nesting area. Committees seem to be formed and options discussed as various smaller groups either decide to go to the burrows or adopt a wait and see strategy. At one point, two of the burrow-dwelling penguins give up and run out to greet the new arrivals and encourage them to come home. About 40 blue penguins finally return from a day spent fishing at sea, and we decide to call it a day as well.

The next morning we are on the road to Dunedin, New Zealand's third largest city. We take the Cadbury Chocolate Factory tour, which is very interesting, but we are disappointed that nothing is being made at the moment. I had hoped to see those candy bars flying out of the assembly line. We are, however, treated to one ton of melted chocolate pouring past us in one of the storage silos. The interesting fact we take away from this tour is that we are far enough south so that the weather never gets hot enough for the factory to need any air conditioning for its factory warehouse.

At the end of a long twisting shoreline road that runs the length of the Otago Peninsula is a protected Royal Albatross colony at Taiaroa Head.

Albatross colonies on tiny remote islands have little to fear, but this is the only mainland nesting colony in existence, and it must be protected from predators and habitat destruction. The number of visitors using the viewing observatory overlooking this colony is strictly controlled to ensure that the birds are not disturbed, so advance booking is required.

Our turn to hike out to the observation hut at the top of the cliff starts with a short informative lecture about the Royal Albatross given by a friendly tour guide. She tells us that the first albatross chick to reach flight from this colony was in 1938 and that there are now well over 100 birds in this colony, The birds only breed every other year, so there is less than half of the birds present at any time. There are currently 31 nesting pairs on the cliff and colony has just celebrated the hatching of its 500th chick.

She also tells us that it may not be windy enough for the adult birds to be willing to land while we are there, so we may only see the baby birds sitting along in their nests. Albatrosses do not have the muscle mass to be able to flap their wings hard enough to take off without the help of a strong breeze. They fly by locking the middle joint in their wings, and then mostly gliding along on the winds. Built for long distance flight, this variety of albatross has a wingspan of 9 feet!

We spend a fairly boring time in the observation hut watching several adult chicken-sized baby birds sitting one to a nest, all of us hoping to see an adult bird arrive. Just as our tour guide begins to distract us with videos of adult birds, the first adult albatross glides into view. Then a second and a third arrives as the first lands and begins to feed its chick. The remaining minutes of our time in the hut also fly by as we watch these amazing flying creatures whose beaks have a built-in smile. They all look so good-natured. Feeling happy ourselves, we return to Dunedin and spend a noisy night in a hotel room just above the city’s most favored hangout spot for teenagers.

Our drive back to Christchurch has some surprises waiting for us in the morning….