Ok New Zealand, it’s enough already!

We’re behind on the blog, we’re sorry. But it’s not our fault! Every time we mean to get an update together about all the amazing stuff we’ve been seeing and doing, something even more amazing happens. We wake up every day thinking the day before was surely the peak of amazing, and go to bed every night totally shocked that we’ve seen something equally or even more awesome.

Like last night when we were about to go to sleep feeling like we’d had a pretty good day. We’d spent it driving though the southern Alps, which were totally spectacular.

After hours of beautiful driving, we stopped for the night in Timaru, a town we’d largely picked because it seemed to have serviceable motels and a bar with decent beer. Turns out it also had an aviary and a pretty cool park we wandered through on our way back. It felt like a full and fabulous day.

But just when we were about to call it a night (like really, really about to… I was in bed!), we discovered that Timaru had one more thing we were looking for… little blue penguins!

We’ve been keeping a list of random questions that come up during the day while we’re driving. “Are the Southern Alps the real name of these mountains?” (yes). “Does that road sign mean what we think it means?” (Thankfully, yes). “where can we see little blue penguins?”

When Timaru came up as the answer to the last one I was confused. Was there another Timaru? Nope. According to Google and trip advisor, we learned that the very Timaru we were sleeping in was home to a few families of penguins who can be seen around 9:15pm when they come back from their days out fishing. It was just after 10pm.

We decided to take a chance and grabbed our head lamps for a midnight walk on the beach. (Sidebar, everything here feels so safe!) In the dark, we walked across the town beach towards the rock wall where we figured penguins would nest. As we got closer, we realized that many other people seemed to be aware of these penguins and had been out waiting for them. They were lined up across the top of the rocks watching…now, watching us!

A very polite volunteer pointed us in the right direction to join the crowd without getting in the penguin’s way. (Sidebar, people here are so nice!) That’s right, there was a tiny penguin just up the beach from where we were standing!!

it was already close to 11pm and these little guys were coming in late. The volunteer explained that they had been in late the night before as well. Their timing varied depending on how far they had to swim out for food – these little guys swim out 25km every day!

Over the next hour most of the crowd called it a night and left – they had been out waiting for penguins for hours, but we were just getting started.

By close to midnight we were among a half dozen people still quietly waiting when this pair rolled in.

First separately, and then together, they toddled their way across the beach towards their nest bringing dinner for their chicks.

The volunteer was still there too – his job is to count that all the town’s penguins make it back to their nesting chicks each night. He showed us their nest and awaiting chicks. They were hungry.

And while we couldn’t see them feeding up close, we could hear them all chirping, and oh, was there a smell!

As we made our way back to the car jay said “we just saw penguins!! Did that really happen?!” Yup. Every day in New Zealand is just plain amazing.

So, we apologize for the delay on the blog. New Zealand seriously won’t quit with the wonderous stuff, but we’ll do our best to get back on track in the next couple days.

We’re continuing south to Wanaka, Queenstown and Milford Sound… Surely Fiordland will be a needed break from all the stunning sites we’ve been seeing!

We’re having a great time, but just like this big guy yawning, we could use a nap! But we’ll try and find a few minutes to tell you all about him soon…