Day 20 - What's that coming over the hill? Is it a penguin? Is it a penguin?

Oamaru - Dunedin

Attention New Zealand traffic. If you see a blue Toyota Corolla sitting at a junction with its wipers going, the driver wishes to turn left. Thankyou.

Yes, our little Corolla has one major flaw. The indicators and wipers are on the wrong side. Every car I have ever driven including the hire cars on this trip has the indicators on the left and the wipers on the right. Except this car. I am faced with breaking a 17 year habit. It isn't easy.

First stop of the day - the Moeraki Boulders. On Moeraki beach is a set of almost perfectly spherical rocks, many of them about five feet in diameter. Some appear buried in the sand like half-hidden mines, others look like they have been rolled into place. The appearance of the boulders is more than a little disconcerting, especially as some of them have a sort of slimy looking hexagonal glue (actually solid to the touch mineral) looking more than a little like a huge turtle shell. Some of the boulders have even split apart along these lines and opened up. The overall effect is something like the egg out of Alien and I couldn't help thinking that they would make a perfect hatching pod for some kind of creature in a Doctor Who episode.

Lunch in Dunedin, a very, very picturesque city. Lots of late 19th century Victorian architecture, including the amazing Railway Station.

Final stop of the day was out on the Otago Penisula. A slightly scary drive (the edge of the road had no barrier, simply dumping you in the sea) out to the Penguin Place Reserve. This was one of the few places where you could sit and watch the rare and quite shy Yellow Eyed Penguin. If you timed it right, which in our case was late afternoon, you could even watch them coming out of the sea and heading towards their nests.

I was a little reluctant to part with the $35 each given my misgivings with Rotorua. I was proved wrong, as we boarded a small bus to journey the 2km or so into the Pinguin Risirve.* The money has gone to build a veritable warren of tunnels and hides in which to view the penguins. You can get very close to some of the nesting boxes without being noticed.

*(Sorry, I am having real trouble with the Noo Zeelun accint. Among other things, 'E' is largely pronounced 'I'.)

Or indeed without noticing the penguins. The group was being led down a path past a couple of boxes when I suddenly caught something in the corner of my eye. Inside a nesting box, not three feet away, a pair of eyes was looking at me. It was a Blue Penguin, the smallest penguin in the wild. Obviously he had come home a little early and was just watching us walk by.

From our vantage point on the hill we began to see the penguins making their way out of the sea and towards the reserve. The main thing that hits you about them is their speed. They might look like they are clumsily waddling but in actuality, they are agile and fast moving. It isn't graceful by any means, but they can shift quite quickly and they moved over the hill into the sand dunes and the reserve area.

Our guide did an excellent job of leading us through the maze, trying to work out which penguin was heading where and going for the best viewing spot. There were plenty of good photo opportunities, although it did seem at times like a game of - pardon the pun - cat and mouse as a penguin would head for its nest, we would move to get there to see it and the bird would simply stop just out of full view for a good preen. No consideration, some creatures.

Being a fan of anything with feathers, Caroline was in her element and it was a very happy wife that I drove back to Dunedin.