May 2, 2008

May 2, 2008- First Day of Travel

Weather:  Varied, started out sunny, became cloudy, 2 kms of driving in rain in route, thunder, and freezing rain, then partly sunny but then rain in evening. 

 

Shirley and Jack had decided that they wanted to see the International Antarctica Center at the Christchurch airport and since we had never been there either decided to also stop before leaving town.  Roy and Marjory had decided to follow us today so the six of us stopped there.

 

They have nice displays of the activities that have gone on over the years in Antarctica.  They also have some blue penguins there with some close up viewing of them.  We enjoyed talking with one of the caretakers about the penguins.  They also have a widescreen projection of beautiful photography from Antarctica.  At the gift shop we got talking with one of the salesladies there about traveling in NZ and about Habitat.  She was very interested and at the end of the conversation Joan and I both got hugs from her and wishes for safe travels.  You meet very nice people here and it’s great to have conversations with them.  It was a good short visit and we departed there about 11:30AM for Oamaru. 

 

We had a commitment to meet the Penguin Express at the campground in Oamaru at 4:45PM so only took time to stop for lunch at the Berry Barn in Geraldine. It was the third time that we have stopped there and even though it’s a little off the main route the scenery and small town atmosphere is worth it.  Also the meat pies and pastries at the Berry Barn are excellent.  As Joan, Marjory, Roy and I were having some good things to eat in came Jay and Joyce.  It can be a small world here in NZ.

 

Along the way it started to rain and then about 4-5km of kind of a wet freezing rain snow mix.  Along with it was some lightning and thunder.  After that it brightened up some.

 

We pulled into the campground about 4:30PM put on some warmer clothes and met the Penguin Express driver at 4:45PM.  It turned into a tightly scheduled day.  On the way to the penguin viewing at Bushy Point he gave us a nice tour of Old Oamaru and the docks area where a lot of grain was shipped out years ago.  Now it is pretty much a historic district with a lot of the old buildings made of whitestone that was quarried in the area.

 

It started raining and by the time we were at Bushy Point to see the yellow-eyed penguins it was raining, cold, and very windy.  We made a mad dash for the viewing blind but along the way there were two yellow eyed penguins nesting about 5 meters off the path.  This was a great close up encounter with them.  According to the guide there are only about 5,000 in the world and about 1,000 of which are in or around NZ.  From Bushy Point the guide took us down to the blue penguin viewing area.  It has a small amphitheater with roof which allows some protection for us penguinites (must not be a word, Word keeps underlining it).  The blues come into shore in a group called a raft.  Since the blues are one of the smallest of the penguins (about 45cm tall) they think that by swimming in a group it looks like a larger fish to the seals and other predators.  In all we got to see about 35-40 of the blues come to shore and make their way up the bank to the nesting area off to the side of the viewing area.  Two of the penguins became very romantic - nature is wonderful.

 

On the penguin tour I got talking with an Asia couple that was seated next to me and found out that they were from Japan and on their honeymoon.  They were a nice young couple and lots of congratulations went to them.  One of the great things about traveling are the people you meet.

 

On the way back to the campground it was raining and then all night it was raining off and on.  The stream at the rear of the campers plus the rain on the roof of the camper was very pleasant to hear when you would wake up at night.

 

Another good day – life is good.