Finding Penguins and Penny Farthings

The Alps2Ocean trail led us to Oamaru, a very cool Victorian town on the east coast in the Otago region. By chance, we parked opposite the library, meaning free WiFi to look up what to do! We wandered down to the historical district, feeling like we had time travelled. 19th century stone architecture, a park with a penny farthing, antique shops, galleries, steampunk HQ. Only the weekend before the town had celebrated its annual Victorian fete.

A Sunday farmers’ market was set up near the bay, and we bought sausages and cherries.  We walked along Tyne Street (streets in the town named after English rivers, we later found out!) and called in at various places, one of which being a super impressive antiques shop that Hugo spent a long time perusing and purchasing books. One old warehouse had old fashioned trikes on the ceiling and penny farthings on display. There was also a very weird face gallery and a stonemason.

We investigated the penguin colony visitor centre, passing a penguin crossing sign on the way, and decided against paying the fee, instead opting to pay to stay at the beachfront campsite and hope to see them on the waterfront at night. After a tasty meal of lamb, we headed out along the waterfront, noting the foul smell of penguin poop. A few other people had gathered and down at the boat ramp a lady wearing a high vis jacket came into view - her jacket had the words 'penguin advocate’ written on it. Bingo! Sure enough, a few dark blobs eventually appeared and started trying to waddle ashore. People started taking photos, and the penguin advocate authoritatively told several people off for using the flash on their cameras. Apparently they aren't able to hear, but are very sensitive to light and movement, only returning to their nests in darkness. A couple of penguins got spooked and started turning back towards the ocean. After an hour or so we headed back towards the campsite, literally dodging the constant stream of penguins which had increased in number an alarming amount. It was a special moment to see them waddling and flapping their flippers under the streetlights as they cautiously crossed our path, but we couldn't help but feel a little guilty that the interference and nosiness of people was to blame for the dwindling numbers of nesting little blue penguin pairs.

Next day I bought a new phone to replace the one I had broken in Australia, and signed up to a NZ contract. My phone number only had 10 digits due to the small NZ population, cute. Further down the east coast we stopped off at Moeraki boulders, a natural phenomenon where spherical boulders emerge from the cliff and lay in situ on the beach. We were able to see one half-born, and the rest we enjoyed posing by and in, Hugo appearing like he had hatched from a dinosaur egg. After lunch on the beach, we indulged in a hokey pokey ice cream, a speciality of new Zealand, similar to honeycomb.

Later on we went to Katiki point lighthouse on the hunt for the rare yellow-eyed penguin, supposedly the rarest penguin in the world. I seemed to forget this briefly when the elusive penguin appeared before us in the perfect viewing spot; Hugo watched in awe as he strutted around while I wandered off to look at some seals, thinking we would see plenty more penguins. Unfortunately this did not occur, and we spent the rest of our walk enjoying the consolation of seals, seagulls and sea views.

We checked in to our campsite in Waikouaiti and headed off to a nearby pub for a drink and WiFi. This is one of those pubs where everyone stops and turns to look at you when you walk in, luckily it was in a friendly rather than an intimidating manner so I ordered a rekorderlig and Hugo ordered a local brew and we sat outside in the evening sun, chatting briefly with a fairly tipsy woman about the countryside being the best place. Near to closing time and the pub was nearly empty save for us and the same, slightly more tipsy woman. The barman accompanied her outside and said to us ‘I'm giving her a lift home, can you watch the bar’. To our bemusement, we sat and finished our drinks in an empty pub to be greeted by the barman on his return, stopping to grin and let us know that this is what it's like in the country.

The following day we continued south, hitting the brakes at a ‘scenic lookout’ sign to see a great vista of the beaches we had just come from. On the way we stopped for a walk up to the ‘organ pipes’, an outcrop of hexagonal stone columns similar to the Giant's causeway in Ireland. After a bit of a climb, I sat at the bottom of the rocks while Hugo climbed all the way to the top up some pretty treacherous looking rockfaces. He took some photos of the stunning views of Mount Cargill and the surrounding area and clambered back down. Unique natural phenomenon viewed, on to Dunedin!Read more