Get Stuffed Penguins

Oamaru is the so called penguin capital and we arrive with the Scubby's gas gauge flashing red. There are two kinds of penguins here — little blue's and yellow eyed. The little blue colony, we quickly learn, is enclosed in some sort of penguin amphitheater complete with a grandstand for ideal viewing of the little guys emerging from the water at dusk and scurrying across the sand to their nests. For this natural phenomena, you can pay the fine price of $25 per person. We inquire if there is somewhere else to go and see them for free and are told a firm no. Apparently, Omarua, has the copyright on little blues..

We go to the Top Ten Campground and find it is almost full and they are charging $42 for a night. We politely tell them to stuff it.

The endangered and rare yellow eyed penguins are viewable for free (not sure of the distinction there) and we ride up to the beach to their nesting grounds and wait it out. Sightings generally occur after 6:30 p.m., but when we arrive at 5:30, there is already a good hoard of viewers, waiting around with their cameras and binoculars as though the royal family might make an appearance at any moment.




I try fooling them into thinking I'm a yellow eyed penguin




but no go....

There are a few seals, but their sleeping get tedious quickly — seals are old news now. We wait for a bit and then go back to our camper and make a simple dinner. While we eat, the hoard grows into a small crowd. Cars and vans now line the road with people streaming by us as we eat and by the time we return to the viewing area, it has tripled with people.

But there are penguins. A couple already in their nests, some babies, and one or two that come out of the water and waddle up to their homes. It's not the big $25 show they offer down the road, but it's still fun. And the fact we're not paying $25, makes it extra thrilling.






We drive up to Kakanui and find a small site near the beach which we sense might be a commune filled with irascible children and parents who don old sports jackets to cook dinner and clutch babies under their arms. $25 for the night.

We take it.