We awoke this morning after a mixed night sleep. The road was a little louder than first thought but generally slept pretty well! A few other campers had joined us in the night and it was great to have had a free nights camping!
We had a quick cup of tea and bowl of yoghurt and granola before heading over to the small town of Akaroa. As per usual the drive was absolutely spectacular with very different scenery to the previous days! Less mountainous but still hilly and gorgeous views over the harbour below.
Arriving in Akaroa we headed straight to the Penguin booking office to get on tonight's tour. It comes highly recommended and wildlife has provided the highlights of our trip so had to be done! I've had a few days without proper coffee so the next stop was the French patisserie for pastry and coffee!
Akaroa was originally settled by the French and the to this day has a very Gallic feel to it. We were served by a very exuberant French man in the cafe and most of the accents are French that you hear in the streets. It has a lovely relaxed seaside feel and is highly recommended if you're in the Christchurch area.
We wandered along the front and the views are spectacular the whole way along. The peninsula was formed by two volcanoes and is a series of small inlets. This leads to a striking view from Akaroa and a very calm harbour protected from the Pacific ocean.
The shops are a mixture of practical and tourist shops, a small supermarket and a very good tourist information where you can book tours to take in wildlife around the harbour. We enjoyed a stroll and popped in a few nick back stores before heading to the campsite.
With our penguin tour heading into the evening we decided to eat our main meal for the day at lunchtime. I was very happy with the spaghetti carbonara that was created in the campsite kitchen. Following lunch we chilled out at the campsite and organised a few remaining details for our trip to Fiji after New Zealand.
Heading back into town we had hoped to visit the small museum but being New Zealand it closed at 4:30 so we headed to the front to enjoy the late afternoon sun. On the beach we skimmed a few stones across the calm harbour. I have very fond memories of skimming stones with my Dad on family holidays down in Cornwall. I'm pretty sure my best today was a 9 or 10 but Carly thought it was a few less!!
We arrived for our tour at 5:30 and found out we were the only guests for the evening. We proceeded to have probably the best tour of our entire trip! As resident photographer I don't tend to get as much info as Carly so she'll talk you through the rest of the evening.
Our guide, Joey, was the daughter of the land owners where the penguins are found so she picked us up and drove us up the hill to their farm.
We are used to booking on tours, climbing into a coach, arriving at a destination and climbing back on having shared the photo spot with 20 other tourist. So to be picked up and taken to a family farm was a real treat.
We drove in the 4x4 up a crazy steep hill out of the crater. Joey pulled over and we hopped out to get an overview of the landscape. From up on the hill the view is even more breathtaking than down in the little town.
Akaroa stands for long bay and from the hill we could see why. The landscape was formed from a volcano, one side of which collapsed in to creat a very shallow harbour and a bay all the way to the sea. The water is that turquoise colour from the glacier silt which makes the Penguins more blue and attracts dolphins that prefer the silty water.
Joey drove us right to the top of the ridge and we dropped over on to the outside, the 'Wildside' as the locals call it. 'The locals' being Joey's mum and dad and their few neighbours.
The family farm, which covers most of the back side of the volcano crater and into the little penguin bay, was bought by her dad and his brother at age 21. He dad had the foresight to protect some of the land, there's a technical term that basically means that no one can touch it because it belongs to the Queen. The settlers destroyed all but 1% of the natural forest in New Zealand when they arrived and the forest her family now protects was part of that 1% so it has lots of original species.
The few farms along that side of the mountain came together and set up a walking trail, they put in accommodation and for £260 per person you can spend 4 days trekking along stunning untouched coasts. Each farmer will do a tour and explain their land so Joey's dad takes people to see the Penguins when they stay on their land. This saved the farms and since Joey's and her cousin have become involved with running penguin tours too. She explained that we were funding two new ferret traps.
We pulled up outside this isolated cottage with a beautiful fenced garden and lots and lots of gorgeous black sheep and lambs running around. Turns out Joey's mum was a famous sheep breeding expert and now just has some interesting ones as pets. We were given food to feed the sheep and they rush round you in excitement! I loved feeding the sheep, they were great to see so up close.
Next I knew we were being dressed up in camouflage outfits and binoculars (not to sneak up or surprise the penguins but to keep everyone looking consistent for the penguins to adapt to us).
We then set out around the immediate sheep paddock and slowly I realised that there were little low lying boxes everywhere. It turns out penguins and sheep live quite happily together. The sheep keep the grass short and so less appealing to the rats and other predators of the penguins.
She had her log books and we followed a couple of trails to check on nesting boxes. She would lift the lid, if there was a penguin we had to see how many eggs they were keeping and what species of penguin it was (blue or white tipped) almost the same as far as I could tell!! She explained everything to us before hand and made us feel like an important part of the team. I realised pretty soon that she wasn't relying on us too heavily thankfully as I was too busy enjoying the penguins to count eggs properly!
We saw a few penguins up close on their nests and then we arrived at a hive to watch the adults come in from the sea having been out all day fishing.
She had mentioned at the start that she was hoping we would spot a yellow eyes penguin, rarest penguin in the world, only 190 breeding pairs left in NZ. They had 4 in the bay but it had been two weeks since she had seen one and she was a little concerned something had happened. She didn't have to worry any longer!! As we sat waiting for the little blue penguins to come ashore a yellow eye penguin hopped onto a rock near where we were waiting. We watched as he hopped his way up the hill side, a beautiful bird, minding his own business and we (well mostly I) squealed with excitement!! Edd kept having to remind me to keep quiet!
Soon after we saw a few little blue penguins arrived too although Joey said they were behaving strangely and she went off to check if there was a seal along the cost putting them off.
We stayed until dark watching them in and out of the water through our binoculars before we headed back to the van. Joey drove us back and dropped us to our campervan. Strangely enough the most fantastic part of the tour wasn't the penguins (except the yellow eye, that was insane!) it was learning about the life of this farmer and his family, the conservation work they achieve, being shown around beautiful private land with sheep, calves and penguins.
We've just had dinner and need to get to bed as its now 11pm and the campsite is very quiet even though it's a Friday night!!
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