Penguin Place

Yesterday we went to Penguin Place which is a conservation reserve on the Otago Peninsula where you can see yellow eyed penguins. Yellow eyed penguins are the third largest penguins and they are the world's rarest penguin. These penguins are about a foot tall and they are so cute. This reserve is funded entirely by these tours and the tours are amazing! It is an opportunity to get super close to these penguins in their own habitat.

We drove about thirty minutes from our house down the Otago Peninsula which was a beautiful drive. We arrived at the reserve, paid for our tickets and then had to listen to a speech by one of the guides telling us a little about the penguins we were to see and some rules to remember on the tour.

This reserve is a working sheep farm and years ago the owner found sixteen penguins on his farm. He has built this reserve to help keep these penguins from extinction and now they have seventy penguins.

The penguins breed then have their chicks in the summer when it can get very hot here. So they try to move as many trees around so the penguins can have shade for their chicks. In the fall the penguins go out in the water, feed and get super fat and then go back to their homes to molt. At this time in the year, at the end of fall and beginning of winter they are just about done molting and they are starting to go back in the water to feed. The guides told us that this is the best time to see them because they are the most beautiful colors. So we picked the perfect time!

After the guides talked to us, we got on a bus and took a six minute ride to the walking tour. The kids did pretty well on the tour. Bill had Charlie in the backpack and he wasn't as interested in seeing the penguins as he was in his snacks but he kept quiet, which was important!

They have built these trenches and forts for us to walk in and look at the penguins. There is about a 10 inch space in the forts for you to look through. Bella really loved walking through the tunnels ( as you can see in the picture). We were able to see a lot of penguins on our tour. The guides said that it was the most they have seen in a long while! In one of the forts we were able to see three penguins walking home from the beach after eating. They walked right by the fort we were in. They were about 10 feet from us...amazing!!! They were so cute. At the end of this post there is a video of them walking home. (Sorry the video is sideways, we've tried but can't turn it but you can still see how cute they are!)

We stayed in each fort for about 5-15 min. Bella's attention to the penguins was about 3 min. So, at times it was hard to keep her quiet and out of trouble. There were times on the tour that Bill and I were looking at the penguins and we heard someone on our tour say "the little girl is running away" I would look up and see Bella go running down another pathway or tunnel and have to go chase after her! If the whole thing wasn't so cool, it would have been very exhausting!!!

All in all, it was one of the coolest experiences we have had and the kids did an amazing job being quiet and for those of you who know Bella that is a feat in itself!!