Today's run was fabulous, because while we were staying in Dunedin, we were staying with my old uni friend Chantal and her family! We worked out it must be 8 years since we last saw each other! It was so good to catch up on everything, and meet her new baby. He usually gets a free ride in his buggy when Chan runs (babies are so lucky), but today he got to chill out at home with his dad, so Chantal, Andrew and me did an awesome route, all along the coastal road with lovely views, and a sneaky hill. 8km of fun! Thanks Chan! I was so excited I forgot to take any photos, but here's our route...
Day 41 - Oamaru
After leaving Dunedin, we headed up the coast to Oamaru, which is famous for being the steam-punk capital of the world. Keen to explore, we headed out for a late afternoon run, which turned into a fairly long run, so much was there to see! There were beautiful botanical gardens...
...wonderful old Victorian buildings and the steam-punk bit.....
...and a totally gigantic hill called Tyne Street...
At the top of the hill, I was suffering from a lack of oxygen, and so made a rash decision to keep on running. There was a yellow eyed penguin colony a little way out of town, so we decided to head there, just in case we might see one. The yellow eyed penguins are already really rare, but they have less than 20 birds now in this colony, as recently a lot have been killed by barracouta. The viewing platform is really high up the cliff and away from the beach the penguins live on, to keep them protected. But we saw one, just a tiny dot making it's way up the beach. Even from a long way off, there's still something really distinctive about their walk, and it was amazing to spot another one of these special birds.
Still in the penguin zone, that evening we went to the Blue Penguin Colony in Oamaru. It's not at all related to running, but I have to mention it as it was one of my favourite parts of the whole trip! Blue penguins/little penguins/ fairy penguins are the world's smallest penguin, only 30cm tall and 1kg in weight! A small colony first arrived in Oamaru in the early 90s and the Blue Penguin Colony was set up to protect them and to learn more about them. In the evening, you can sit and await the penguins arriving back from their day at sea. It's really exciting, sitting there as it's getting dark, listening to information from the staff....and waiting for them to come back! They arrive back in groups or 'rafts' ...which is guess is sort of like mass commuting - they fish alone, but regroup about 500m off shore and come ashore together. They all come out of the water making a huge noise (a bit like ducks) and waddle up the rocks together and then dash across the grass to their nesting huts. A penguin can swim 50km in a day, so can be pretty tired when they get back, so lots of them hang about on the rocks for a while, resting and preening, and looking like they are having a good natter to each other. It was truly a magical sight to watch, we were there for almost two hours, but it was so transfixing it only felt like a heart beat! 184 penguins came back during the evening. 3 of them even took a detour and walked right along underneath the seats! Because lights and flashes frighten penguins you can't take photos, but this is a photo from the Blue Penguin Colony website which has got loads of information, and you can check how many penguins have come back each night, how many eggs and chicks there are....
Day 4 - Oamaru
I really loved Oamaru, and in a weird way I enjoyed running up the massive hill on Tyne Street, so fitted in a quick run before we left. In the botanical gardens I found some unusual flowers and an aviary with some fluffy chickens!
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