Bushy Beach

I arrived in Oamaru with several hours to spare before my scheduled tour with the little blue penguins. A shopkeeper in town told me about the Bushy Beach Scenic Reserve, where she had seen yellow-eyed penguins on the beach as a child. She drew me a map, and I drove out there to see if I might catch any early penguins heading in for the night. At the penguin hide, there were a few other quiet penguin hopefuls, but it was a sunny day, early in the afternoon, and no penguins appeared. The scenery was beautiful, though, and it was neat to see all the sheep pastures perched above the ocean.

Take note of the sign at the entrance to Bushy Beach. These are allowed: people, people with disabilities, penguins, and information. Dogs are definitely not allowed. If penguins had arrived, they would have washed up on the beach pictured below just before sunset (around 5:30 here). Yellow-eyed penguins, unlike the more oblivious little blue penguins, are easily scared by the presence of people, so they have to be viewed from "hides," little wooden huts built into the cliffs with windows cut out.