The Penguin Place

The big event for Wednesday was visiting the yellow-eyed penguin reserve called (creatively) The Penguin Place. It is on the Otago Peninsula, which for those of you following along on the map is on the southeast edge of the south island. The yellow-eyed penguin is one of the rarest and most endangered penguins, and the reserve was set up about twenty years ago by a sheep farmer and his family. He bought the land for his sheep farm and then found that he had about eight penguins living on the coast. He set up fences to keep his sheep from eating away at the bush they lived in, and over time set aside more and more land for them. The reserve now has more than 40 birds living there and features camouflaged trenches and blinds so scientists and visitors can observe the penguins from close up. The blinds have 4-inch tall gaps that visitors can peer through to look and take pictures of the penguins. Normally the penguins are too shy to let people get close, but because the gap is only four inches tall the penguins think that the funny little animals in the hole are only four inches tall, thus are smaller then them, so they aren't afraid! At one point we were at most four feet from a penguin minding her own business. It was outstanding, and I got several great shots of penguins in their natural environment. It was an amazing experience!