Oamaru - first penguin encounter

Next stop and only 3 hours away from Christchurch was Oamaru. I mainly wanted to go there to spot some penguins in the wild. 🐧 Oamaru is a little cute town on the east coast of the South Island and since you can sometimes spot penguins just walking around the city it is also called the penguin town of New Zealand. On the first day there I just walked around, went up pretty steep streets (sometimes even steeper than in San Francisco) and found wonderful spots over looking the city. The next day I really wanted to find some penguins so I started the 45 minute (one way) journey to spot some yellow-eyed penguins which is the rarest penguin species in the world. Apparently bushy beach is known to be the best place to spot them at sunset. Luckily the weather was good but during sunset it got very cold so I had to bundle up quit a bit - after all it is still winter here.. I spotted some seals and a lot of seagulls but unfortunately the first time I was there I did not spot any penguins. But i usually don’t give up that easily and I was eager to see some penguins so I went to the same spot twice, and got a lift back from locals twice which luckily saved me the walk back. And in the end I was rewarded because I was able to spot one lonely penguin! Guess three times is a charm after all :) Even though I did not see as many penguins as I liked to i still managed to see the rarest penguin species in the world- pretty amazing! I enjoyed my time in Oamaru very much and also met very interesting and lovely people there.Read more