Penguins

So I was unexpectedly in Oamaru the other day (I was due to be in earthquake stricken Christchurch).

Oamaru is known for two, possibly three, things: Penguins, it's Victorian town centre and possibly the Whitestone Cheese factory.

The Victorian town centre is immediately obvious, and very impressive it is too, and the cheese at the cheese factory was quite tasty. The penguins require you to be at the Blue Penguin Colony at a certain, changeable time each evening. On the night I was in town it was 8.15pm.

After a bit of a route march from my motel I was at the Colony just before 8.15pm. I didn't have to wait long before the first 'raft' of penguins came ashore.

The penguins are the same as the ones that can be seen at Philip Island in Victoria, Australia. However, the set up in Oamaru seems better (maybe because it's on a bit of a smaller scale). Also we had the added interest of a fur seal being disturbed from its slumber as the penguins came ashore (it wasn't happy), and the fact that some of the penguins are about to start malting. Whilst they are malting they can't go out to sea because they are not 'waterproof', so they need to eat enough food until they are 'waterproof' again. This means that some of them are so full of fish that they struggle to walk and stumble all over the place. Very amusing!