On the hunt for little penguins

It's beginning to sink in more that we have left and that this is the time we need to spend doing what we set out to do. Today we had a penguin tour booked for the evening so we spent the day exploring Akoroa town again which started with some lovely Crepes for breakfast in the town. Akaroa was first settled by the French so it has a strong French style of architecture so it was nice to see this has been carried through into the cafe we visited. We went to all the shops around town and although we'd done this before we still enjoyed strolling around together. After 4 months of working with only last Tuesday and Saturday off together it's lovely to just be in each others company again. We headed back to the campsite to make an early tea so we would be ready in time for our tour. After a quick easy pasta meal we met up with the tour operators back in town. We were divided into two small groups so their was actually only 8 of us in our mini bus. The drive to the site took us up and over the hills which gave some lovely views out over Akaroa. We ended up at a house right near the coast of Flea Bay. We discovered that the Little Penguins use to nest on the peninsula but after the introduction of predators they pretty much disappeared. The couple who built the house here discovered a couple of penguins nesting under their house and decided to help encourage the population to come back through building nest boxes and predator trapping. They now have over 1000 successful breeding pairs of penguins on their land which is just incredible. All the farm lands nearby have also helped with this process. The land is also private so no one can turn up with torches and disturb the penguin's natural behaviours. When we arrived we were greeted by the local sheep who help keep the grass between the nesting boxes and the shore short, making it easier for the penguins but also harder for predators to follow their tracks. As an added bonus we were able to feed the sheep before being given camouflage overjackets and binoculars to wear. As we walked up to the view points we saw many nesting boxes, some with chicks or an adult peering out from inside. We moved as quietly as possible to not disturb them too much. From the lookouts we could see the penguins bobbing on the water waiting for the cover of darkness to come ashore. It was amazing watching these little penguins jump out the water and on to the rocks. Our guide was very worried about not disturbing them so as soon as it looked like the penguins were going to climb up the bank to their boxes we retreated back to the house so nothing would be in their way. It was an amazing, informative tour and it feels good knowing some of the money we spent is going to continue to fund this great project. The best thing we learnt is that the penguins here are a much lighter blue colour on top compared to the ones in Dunedin down the coast. This is because the sea here is fed by glacier water so is much lighter in colour and amazingly overtime the penguins who arrived here changed colour to adapt to this colour change. How cool is that?!Leggi altro