We were up again early. The rain seemed to be easing off, and we
walked down to check in for the ferry after breakfast. The ferry headed off on time, heading out of
the bay, but there were no Fiordland penguins where there had been seven
yesterday! We were lucky! The crossing started very calm with light
winds, but by halfway across there was a very strong wind and enough small waves
to cause some pretty good spray over the back deck. We saw a few birds on the way back including
Southern Royal, Buller’s Salvin’s and white-capped albatross, sooty shearwater,
and at least one probable mottle petrel.
We docked at the ferry terminal in Bluff and
quickly loaded the van with all our gear and headed off northwards. A fair way to drive today to get up to
Oamaru, but some pretty nice scenery along the way. We basically headed through to Owaka where we
grabbed some lunch and then headed to a beach to eat it. It had started to drizzle a little, but as we
finished so did the rain and we headed along a beach and found a good number of
Hooker’s sea lions resting on the sand.
They were spread out along the beach, with several of them lying in small
groups. We had great views of them, and
even watched one large bull come up out of the sea.
We then wandered back to the van and carried on
northwards, heading through Dunedin. We
called in at a small coastal spot where we had awesome views of yellow-eyed
penguins. There were at least six birds
out sitting about, and several juveniles with just small traces of down left to
moult sitting under bushes. They were
clearly very close to fledging from the nest, so were probably waiting on their
parents to come back and feed them. Some
of the adults sitting around were clearly in the middle of their moult, and
there is nothing that looks more miserable than a moulting penguin. We enjoyed the beautiful coastal views, and
watched a few albatross cruise past, as well as a Hutton’s shearwater, and
several of the newly ‘split’ Otago shags – split from Stewart Island shag.
We then headed on to Oamaru and to our
accommodation, where we checked in and had a break before another excellent
dinner.
Day
total – Seen = 48 + 3 heard (bellbird, tomtit,
redpoll); new for the trip = 0; total for the trip to date = 159
Bird
of the day – Yellow-eyed penguin x5
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| Beautiful skies as we crossed back to Bluff |
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| Yellow-eyed penguin having a stretch on the cliff top |
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| Sleepy penguins |
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