In Oamaru on New Zealand’s South Island, the world’s smallest penguins are utterly adorable.
Oamaru blue penguins ticket information
- Advance booking your tickets to see the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony is strongly advised. Bookings can be made here.
- Tickets to see the penguins in Oamaru cost $NZ43 at the time of writing.
- Oamaru is 113km north of Dunedin and 248km south of Christchurch.
Oamaru Blue Penguins Colony review
All eyes are to the right, waiting for the anticipated new arrivals. As the dusk inches towards blackness, the blue penguins of Oamaru gather into groups and come back from a day’s fishing in the ocean. There’s safety in numbers, so they wait until their friends arrive and come ashore in groups.
How penguins mate
There’s something happening to the left though. There’s a shape underneath the wooden boardwalk, and it’s moving. It appears that two of the penguins didn’t bother to go fishing today after all, and are having special adult fun.
If you’ve never watched blue penguins having sex before, then suffice to say there’s not much sweet nothing-whispering or wooing over dinner. Boy penguin gets girl penguin on her front, then jumps on top and does his thing with a piston-like ferocity. Once he finishes, he leaps to his feet with surprising agility, then stands by the side of her, almost beaming with pride.
She remains face down on the ground for quite some time, eventually taking ginger movements to her feet and shaking as if coming out of a heavy daze.
The smallest penguin species
It’s good to see this as a sour, bitter chaser to the overdose of cuteness that’s about to come. Because if there’s anything more adorable than tiny penguins waddling home to their nests, then it’s probably going to be an instant emetic.
The blue penguins – often called little penguins or fairy penguins – are the smallest penguin species in the world. They grow to around 30cm tall, weighing about one kilogram, and they’ve been regular residents of a former quarry on Oamaru’s harbour since the 1970s.
How the penguin colony in Oamaru thrived
In the 1990s a team of volunteers cleared the quarry up and built nesting boxes into grassy mounds as safer homes for the penguins. And now the numbers of breeding pairs are well into the hundreds.
Viewing stands have been built either side of the entrance to the colony, and visitors are asked to stay seated as the penguins can get stressed by movement. There’s also a ban on photography, videos and pulling out the mobile phone. They’re wild birds, and the less impact we can have on them, the better.
Penguins coming out of the sea
Their first few steps out of the sea are wary, and they pussyfoot up the rocks, taking regular breaks to shake off water and take a look around them. Cats and dogs are land-based predators for them, and while the New Zealand fur seal basking on the rocks won’t eat them, it could certainly pick a fight.
Once they reach the grassy flat stretch at the top, they suddenly make a run for it, wings flapping and surprisingly muscular bodies wobbling back and forth as their tiny legs attempt to propel them forwards. It’s all too much for some, and they end up toppling over then sliding on their bellies. It’s gloriously comical, and impossible to watch without a huge, daft grin spreading across your face. Any other contenders for the title of the world’s cutest bird have to seriously up their game.
More New Zealand South ideas
Other New Zealand articles on Planet Whitley include:
- The shocking tale of New Zealand’s only castle.
- Sailing an Americas Cup yacht in Auckland.
- Surviving the ferry journey to Stewart Island.
- Why you shouldn’t visit Milford Sound from Queenstown.
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