Oamaru

Oamaru is a small town on the coast that is well known for its two types of penguins that inhabitat the beaches. These two types of penguins are blue penguins and yellow eyed penguins. Blue penguins are the smallest penguin species and yellow eyed penguins are one of the rarest and are an endangered species.

We stopped here for the night and arrived just in time for the yellow eyed penguins expected sightings as this is the time where they emerge from the sea to feed their chicks after a days fishing. After an hour we seen 3 yellow eyed penguins in total and one seal. Two of the penguins were at the other end of the beach and as these birds are only 1.5ft in height, it wasn't the best of views. Although we did enjoy seeing them, it wasn't the best in terms of view as you were kept off the beach at a viewpoint from the cliff edge above the beach. The reason for this is these bird are unbelievably timid and will not emerge from the water if they see anything on the beach, even if it means their chicks have to starve. We weren't too fussed anout this though as we soon learned there would be plently of other places to view them further south.