We had booked an 8am flight. Not only to make it convenient
to ask Simon for a lift before work, but also so we would touchdown in
Christchurch nice and early to grab our camper van and hit the road.
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| Leaving a sunny Auckland.... |
Landing
slightly early on a rainy South Island, we caught the courtesy bus to Lucky
rentals. The place was in chaos. Our driver couldn’t park the bus right outside
the building as it was already crammed full of other vehicles and we forlornly
took our place in the lengthy queue inside.
Those whose holiday was over had it easy, returns were seen straight
away and after a quick check of their vehicle they were free to go. Whereas, we
ended up waiting for an hour and a half before we picked up our van! We had
opted for the full waiver insurance option which saved us time as we didn’t
have to go over the exterior of the vehicle noting the existing damage in
detail.
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| The fishy devil..... our camper for our South Island adventures |
Our camper is a Toyota Hiace
with no signwriting on (right), which we liked as it meant we could almost pass
it off as our own private camper and with the registration, FSH166, we opted to
nickname it ‘the fishy devil’. We notice some quirks as soon as we hit the
road. The door open warning light is broken so that the red warning light is
permanently on. We will just have to double check all of the doors are firmly
shut before we depart anywhere. There is no catch on the cutlery drawer meaning
that it crashes open whenever we turn right and then bangs closed again
following a hard left. Ahhh, the van has character….
First job was to stop off at a supermarket to stock up on
food and drinks and grab something tasty for lunch. We then found a parking
area to spend some time familiarising ourselves with our new temporary home at
our leisure and then it was time to hit the road south. I had booked a campsite for us for our first
night, most importantly because it was the only one in the small coastal town
of Oamaru close to the blue penguin colony. The drive there was roughly four
hours, so we split the driving 50/50 and Becks got her first experience of
driving in NZ. There wasn’t any particularly terrific scenery on the way so we
made good time and checked in to the site about 6pm. Time to practise setting the camper up for
our first night in it. We’d made the
assumption that the ‘upstairs’ bunk would be the smaller of the two so it would
make sense if Becky slept there as the shorter one of us. But it quickly became
clear that because the upper bunk went over the top of the cab it was actually
huge! Plenty of room for big old me (below) and Becks will have to make do with
the smaller ground floor accommodation.
After a long day we chose to make something easy for dinner
so that we could eat and go penguin spotting.
We’d picked up some pot noodle type Thai meals which came with sachets
of spices and paste to create a culinary delight in minutes. Look, not exactly
a feast for the eyes (right). It filled the gap but was very spicy. We may pass
on buying those again….
There was a rather industrial looking playground next to the
campsite. In the grey gloom of the evening we spent some time being big kids on
the obstacles before heading to the wharf to look around.
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| Penguin-themed Oamaru |
The
receptionist at the campsite had informed us that we could choose whether to
pay the entrance fee at the Blue Penguin centre at the end of the wharf or try
our luck spotting penguins around the harbour ourselves. She added that many people who paid the
entrance fee went on to see penguins as they walked home afterwards. We were
only staying for one night, what would be the point in risking missing seeing
the very animals that we had gone there to see?!
Having seen thousands of pied shags cramming themselves onto
the jetty for the night (below) dusk fell and we made our way round to the Little
Penguin centre.
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| It's a pied shag party on this Oamaru jetty... standing room only. |
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| A rare road sign... |
There was a strict ‘no
camera’ rule within the viewing area to prevent people even mistakenly
disturbing the penguins with their flashes (hence lack of photos). We’d taken the binos and focused in
on the sea before realising that there were already queues of tiny penguins
forging a path up the slippery rocks. How on earth they manage to keep their
balance over such perilous terrain with no arms for balance is beyond me! The
majority of the flock shuffled their way through tunnels underneath the
boardwalk and found their way to their burrows. The highlight of the evening
was when some of them got ‘lost’ and found their way into the auditorium. Staff
members were at hand to get the crowd to stay silent and keep a respectable
distance whilst the bird found its way home.
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| Each of these little wooden boxes is a penguin 'burrow' in the penguin village |
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| A couple of penguins helpfully stood near this light as we strolled back to the camper |
Yes, we did see some more penguins on the walk home (above), but we were
both glad that we had paid to go into the penguin centre. It was a really
enjoyable and special experience and we got to watch hundreds of the birds both in the water
and on the land. It was then time to spend our first night in the camper and
see how comfortable we could get!
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