more penguins and heading back west

so in oamaru, they have a little blue (fairy) penguin colony that they advertise very well. they live in an old quarry and are fuly protected. people even build them little houses - which most of them choose to live in - but some build their own (this was true with the yellow eyed penguins i saw on the otago peninsula near dunedin). so i did the behind the scenes tour - which really should be called peeking in on penguins. they built a building and then penguin houses all around it and you can go in the building and then peek into all the nests and see what the penguins are up to. and they can see you too. and let me tell you i got a few nasty looks. but it was a good time to go bc there were eggs and babies and teenagers and adults in some form in most of the ten nests. then i ate a few timtams (forgot to plan in dinner) put on all the clothes i owned and prepared for a literal march of the penguins.

they have sodium lights which are orange - which they say are a color that the penguins cant see. so the penguins come ashore at dusk in a huge massive group (in fear of some extinct large predatory bird that no doubts humans destroyed) but since there are the orange lights the penguins think it is dark and meanwhile us humans in the stand can see them perfectly. brilliant. so i huddled in the bleachers and ooohed and ahhed with everyone else about how cute the masses of penguins are. all total something like 250 came ashore - usually in groups of 50ish. and then you'd watch them sneak to their burrows. sometimes fat chicks (they raise two) would come bombarding any passing by adults hoping for food. hilarious to watch but the chicks were unlucky - only their real parents will feed them. i think i was one of the last people to leave - watching the penguins was fun for me. is anyone surprised?

the next morning i had my picture taken next to the giant penguin statue in town (not as giant as i would have supposed) and headed west. bc if you are going to travel around the south of new zealand why not zig zag all about? a pretty uneventful day other than getting stopped for twenty minutes bc 1000 sheep were using the road to move from one paddock to another (this is the second time i have been stopped by stock on a MAIN HIGHWAY - the first time was cows though).

i couch surfed with laurie and simon near wanaka. they are building a home in new zealand but mostly call alaska home, so as a result they have a half built house and a small compound of holiday trailers, an outdoor kitchen, and a no-door outhouse... which by the way - all of it i found completely fabulous. i loved the set up and that it was a neat way to be there to work on your new home but still be comfortable... and the veggie soup and homemade mead were awesome. i was sorry to spend only one night there... it would have been chill to stay longer.