Dolphin Encounter and Penguin Viewing in Oamaru

Wednesday, March 1, 2000:  Dolphin Encounter and Penguin Viewing in Oamaru

After a continental breakfast, we headed to the Dolphin Encounter meeting point by 8:30 am.  Doug signed up to swim with the dolphins.  I’m not a swimmer, so I signed up to watch (and photograph).  During the encounter, our captain had radio contact with a helicopter counterpart who radioed the location of a dolphin pod.  Our captain would steer our boat towards that pod, cut off the engine and have the swimmers jump out of the boat to swim among the dolphins.  One of the guys was fortunate enough to have a dolphin spin out of the water.  Some the dolphins were leaping.  I went with the attitude that I would continue to snap a whole roll of film and hope that at least one of them would capture an amazing photo.  (As it turns out, I captured a few good photos in that roll of film.)  The dolphins, tired of playing, swam away.  With swimmers returned to the boat, our captain revved up the engines and returned us to land by 1 pm.  That was surely an encounter.

Doug cleaned off the salt water from his body and swim trunks at the Dolphin Encounter headquarters, changed back into his traveling clothes and we were on our way for a late lunch at the Craypot.

Doug drove on and on, stopping in a little town for fuel and snacks/soda then continued.  He finally stopped in a town called Oamaru.  As we were entering the city limits, he asked if I saw the crossing sign.  No, I hadn’t, so Doug drove back so I could see and photograph the sign.  It was a PENGUIN crossing sign!  The little town of Oamaru was famous for its Little Blue Penguin colony.  We stopped at a shop to get tickets for the penguin colony exhibit, and then enquired about a place to stay.

We sat at the edge of the waterfront from about 7 – 7:30 pm when we saw a Little Blue Penguin come out of the water onto the beach.

We had a quick dinner at The Last Post.

9:00 pm back at the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony for the exhibit.  We were escorted to a wooden shed of a stand with bleacher risers about 5 high.  I sat by an old lady who said she’d been collecting and sending in cheese wrappers for years to support the penguin colony.  The announcer spoke into his microphone to tell us the rules:  Be quiet, no sudden moves, no getting out of the seats for a closer look, absolutely no photos with or without flash, or you will be escorted out without a refund.  He then proceeded to make a melodramatic play-by-play of the first Little Blue Penguin hopping out of the water to the left of our stands, up the rocky ledge to cross the little road that separated the breakwater and the burrows in the hill to the right of our stands.  As the Little Blues came out of the water, some of the Little Blues in the burrows peeked out of their burrows to greet them home.  It was such an adorable display.  When it was over, we were shown the way out via the souvenir shop, where you could buy photos.  I refused to buy a photo, though I wished I were able to take one or two photos of my own.

We stayed the night at Anne Mieke Guest House.  Sally, our hostess, made us some hot milo before we went to bed.