Back on the Bay, but not for a swim, tonight we are spectators, watching the hard working and fast swimming Little Blue Pengiuns come home to their nests on Caroline Bay.
Wev’e seen the signs, we’ve seen the wee foot prints, now it’s time to meet these birds in person, swimming 6k/hour they are way to fast for me to catch up with in the water,on land,I might just snag a sighting.
The Blue Pengiun is the world’s smallest penguin at just 40cm tall, there is a small colony here on Caroline Bay, they leave their nests at dawn,and travel up to 25k while fishing during the daylight hours,then return, with a belly full of fish at sunset.
We are ready, front row seat, me and Cynthia wait on the rocks, we wait, and we wait, it gets darker, and darker, 30 minutes, 1 hour, then we see a shape, a Pengiun shape, Penguin surfs in on a wave, turns around and surfs out, surfs in, surfs, out, over and over until a 2nd pengiun surfs in, both pengiuns then haul their fish filled bellies out of the water, what follows it is a ” fish drunk” waddle to the rocks, fantastic!
We are yearning for more, eventually,3 more follow suit, what a show!
We wander back towards the truck and come across ” Pengiun Pete”, a penguin ambassador, ” I’m here to educate people on not using a flash photography”, he declares, ” no flash here”, I assure him, ” do you see the babies on the rocks?”, he excitedly replies, we lean over, and just arms length away are two young birds, enjoying the evening, waiting for their mum or dad to come feed them. ” They would do this all their life, if they could, after a year, the parents cut them off and quit feeding them, forcing them to go out and fish for themselves”, he tells us, “tough love”, I reply and we all giggle.
What a time, we thank Pengiun Pete for all his terrific information, give him our bar of chocolate, which he announces is his favorite and head off into the night, what a terrific day and night on the beach, I lOVE pengiuns.
Now back to swimming, we really are going to Mount Cook tomorrow and I can’t wait!
