March 1, 2024

Oamaru to the Moeraki Boulders to Ta Rauone Reserve Parking Lot

Unfortunately we did not see any penguins. We are told that the penguins are currently moulting. That means the adult penguins do not go out into the ocean as much. They are staying on land and are getting rid of their feathers and growing new ones.

We will try again on the Otago Peninsula.

It is foggy when we wake up and we decide to do our food shopping. We then walk thru Oamaru and realize it has very interesting history. We stumble into a museum and watch a short film about Oamaru some 150 years ago.

Oamaru had some beautiful old Victorian style limestone buildings.

We stop at a bakery and enjoy a cappuccino and a huge almond croissant before we continue to Bushy Beach. Some fairly big sea lions are lounging at the beach and observe all the tourists.

As usual we take the back roads and continue to the Moeraki boulders. Each boulders weighs several tons and its is said that these boulders were formed 65 million years ago.

We drive oout to Albatross Center all the way out on the Otega Peninsula. Again we wait and hope to see the little blue penguins to come ashore. This time we are lucky and see them come out of the water and go find their nests even though we are again quite far away. The tour for the viewing platform was already sold out.

We are spending the night close by on a parking lot as we have booked a tour to go go the nest of the albatross the next morning.