The sticker on my travel diary shows how important the protection of the penguins is in New Zealand.
This sign was also found in large on New Zealand's roadsides.
When we planned the trip it was clear that we would also try to see the different types of penguins in New Zealand.
On the second day on the South Island, we started our first attempt from Christchurch and made our way to the coast.
Extract from the diary: In the morning we swung into the car and drove to the coast. Only after Summit, from there there is the Summit Road towards Akoroa. The prospects were absolutely fantastic and in all directions! At 12:00 we were in Akoroa. There we did a 2 hour boat tour through the bay for NZ $ 78. The weather was great and we saw everything the brochure promised. Dolphins, cormorants in their nesting halls and penguins.
The next day there was a lot of information about the penguins of the antarctic at the International Antarctic Center. For example, how big the individual penguin species are, Figure 1. There was also a climate chamber in which we felt thickly wrapped in warm clothing - 25 degrees Celsius. In the souvenir shop I bought a little blue glass penguin, picture 2.
Our journey continued to Oamaru. In this small town everything is all about the little birds. Even our accommodation had a penguin in their logo. In the tourist information you could book different tours.
Excerpt from the diary: In the tourist information we saw the description of a coastal path and then we walked along it. It started right behind the penguin center. After 5 minutes we saw the first highlights. From the way we could look directly into a cormorant nest, in which a cormorant with two chicks sat. Seals bask on the beach about 100 meters away. The path led through a small forest area and ended again at the penguin center.
In the evening (6:00 p.m.) we are back to Busday Beach. There was a guided tour of the yellow-eyed penguins' nests for NZ $ 10 per person. It was very interesting, we got within 3 meters of a penguin nest with two cubs. After dinner, the penguin show continued at 9:00 p.m. In the penguin center we took a seat on a grandstand. Costs NZ $ 12, no photography! There was a small lecture about the little penguins and after a while you saw larger groups of little penguins come ashore. The groups machined up a rather steep slope and past the grandstand and quickly disappeared into their nesting caves. On the way home we saw some of the penguins on the roadside .
There was even a good brochure (picture 3) in German, including a sketch (picture 4) of the stands and the route the little penguins took to the nests.
We saw the last penguins later on the Milford sound. Again during a boat tour. You can see photos of the penguins in the animal photos.
Since the little penguins are only ashore at night, it is very difficult to photograph them. On the current website of the Antarctic Center I saw that there are now also living little blue penguins - there were not yet in 2003.
