The bird blog

The Otago Peninsula is literally right around the bend from Dunedin, and you trade a lively city for the wilds in less than half an hour. David Bellamy proclaimed it the biggest ecotourism success in the world (I might say Galapagos was a contender, but hey!) and it is rightly famous for its wildlife.

Here, still within Dunedin city limits, you have blue penguins, New Zealand Fur Seals and – most importantly – the only mainland nesting site of the Royal Albatross, and one of the few places to see the extremely rare Yellow Eyed Penguin.

We rather threw the penguin place tour guide off her stride. She started with the “who’s seen a penguin in the wild?” question. Our kids all piped up that they had, and only closer questioning, they chipped in that it was the Galapagos penguin. “Oh,” she says, a little downhearted. “Well, that is the rarest penguin in the world. This is the third rarest.” We didn’t have the heart to say we’d also seen the Humboldt penguin in Peru and Chile … but we did learn they only survive this far north because of the Humboldt cold current which brings all those lovely nutrients up this close to the equator.

It has been mentioned in several pics that Joe, packhorse, is carrying Jenna again. It must be said, we did sometimes wonder if her legs worked at all. But now we know they do … when penguins are on offer! Jen is besotted with them, and has been since Kelly Tarlton’s Antartic World in Auckland where she saw the biggies. Jen has revised her career expectations. She is now going to be a singer, buy a horse to ride to work, which will be looking after penguins. So, she has kept vestiges of the cowgirl career plan in there, but for now it’s all about penguins.
She proved her legs work just fine, running between the hides, up hills and down tunnels completely silently after the tour guide that afternoon. The other two were also amazing, keeping very quiet hidden in hides to watch the adults, and containing their extreme excitement on seeing the furball babies (who had no fear of humans whatsoever). We sat so close to the babies, who just looked at us quizzically, probably wondering if we might be about to regurgitate some yummy squid for them. It was fantastic to watch the adults waddling out of the sea in the early evening, bringing home their catch for the very hungry youngsters. There were a few hairy moments, as a sealion was waiting on the beach for them, but we are pleased to report that all made it home to their young. You can’t write about penguins without saying how comical they look, and they really do. We are not alone in our unoriginality! A letter from Prince Charles on the wall also called them comical, so that seals it (no pun intended).

Though mostly solitary, these penguins are incredibly faithful and affectionate when they pair up. There is one poor bloke there who’s wife probably got snapped up by a sea lion five years ago, but he hasn’t given up hope yet. Every night, for the last five years, he has sat up on the ridge above the grass, looking out to sea. He waits for her to come home until after dark. Lets hope he finds some nubile young lady penguin to ease his pain soon.