#PenguinBeach

We woke up to another sunny day in NZ in a small off the beaten track holiday home that overlooked the harbour near Dunedin.
After a few days of hectic drives we were all feeling it. With a view that didn’t inspire much need for moving we decided to chill at the house. I cosied up with my book and a cuppa!
In the afternoon we dusted off the bbq, (haha! I say we...I wasn’t really involved in the dusting)
And discussed our plans for penguin seeing. We had found the right beach the night before and were lucky enough to see a family of sea lions (a mummy and daddy sea lion with their pup!) and we just caught one of the penguins waddling out of the sea. Tonight we were hoping of yet more sightings.

We packed a picnic and drove down to the coast. Once we had arrived at the beach we set up camp on a hill with a cave which despite it being a mild day, sheltered us from a chilly wind that had picked up. I immediately went on a hunt to see if any penguins had made an appearance. I walked across the beach towards some rocks and as I turned the corner I stopped in fright as a huge seal was out of the water staring straight at me!
“Okay Mr Seal, you stay there and I’ll go on this rock to take photos of you!”
I hear they can be pretty fast and vicious so I was keen to give him plenty of space between us!
It was just the two of us for a while and I enjoyed watching him saunter further onto the beach. I tried to signal to my dad and Berry that there was a seal lion but they didn’t have a clue what I was on about. Luckily they got the hint that they should go over so they were soon having a peek at the chubby chappy themselves.

Satisfied with our seal sightings and keen to see penguins we followed the penguin footprints back to our cave. None had come out yet that we had seen but their tracks told us there were some already in the reeds.
The beach was a perfect evening, the clouds started to turn pink in the evening sky as the waves continued to crash gently onto the soft, grey sand.

We unpacked our picnic and poured a glass of red each as the sun sank further behind the mountains. Across the beach a tiny figure, bolt upright with a tiny tail started waddling speedily out of the sea! “A penguin!” We all shouted excitedly!
I picked up the binoculars and watched as he made his way quickly across the beach. We were surprised at how fast he could walk with his little stubby legs!

A short while later Berry noticed something in the sea. She explained where it was as I frantically scaled the sea with my binoculars, each viewpoint just showing me clear white waves. Eventually I spotted him! Another seal was fishing for his dinner. He popped up and

vanished just as quickly so he was tricky to keep track of. Knowing he had an audience, he started showing off his fishing skills to us. He surfed the waves, jumped and dived and played another round of hide and seek, beating me every time!

By now a couple of other people had turned up and were hiding themselves in the rocks and on the cliffs. We had decided to risk going to this beach rather than the paid experience and even though we knew we wouldn’t see as many animals, it was much more exciting watching and waiting to see if they would appear!

As we tucked into our tea and chocolate my dad spotted a duck in the sea. “Oh look a duck! We don’t want ducks we want penguins!” He complained.
Berry reminded my dad that ducks don’t swim in the sea and grabbed her binoculars to have a look.

“Another penguin!”
He emerged just as quickly as the one before and made a swift run for the sandy mound. Soon he was out of sight and snuggled between the reeds too. We continued eating our dinner and I had to prod the seagulls with Berry's walking stick.

We stayed a little longer chatting and watching the waves while we put the world to rights. Before long, it was time to leave. I could have sat up on the hill top all night and waited for more penguins but I think my remains would have been found in the morning half eaten by sand flies, so I reluctantly agreed to leave.