Moeraki Boulders (no, not Morasci) and the blue penguins

One of Collette’s finds in Oamaru area were the Moeraki Boulders. These unusual rocks are round, like giant marbles, with some type of crystal/mineral deposit forming geometric shapes within the rock. Officially, the rocks are septarian concretions consisting of mud, clay and calcite crystals that radiate out from a hollow core. (Thank you Wikipedia)

About a 30 minute drive from Oamaru on the way to Dunedin, there is the beach with these boulders. Along with busloads of Chinese visitors! Now there’s plenty of space for everyone to see the boulders and take pictures but for some unexplained reason, the Chinese feel it necessary to get the pose exactly right in every picture they take. Even if it means taking 10-15 pictures of each person with the same rock. Fortunately for us, the bus was leaving for the next attraction so we only had to wait 2-3hrs for the beach to clear so we could see the boulders.

We’re becoming quite the geological tourists having seen the Cliffs of Moher, Arenal Volcano, Giant’s Causeway, and now the Moeraki Boulders! Time to head back for the blue penguins but first, we found one lazy seal! This guy wouldn’t move for anything, just scratched his back and watched us walk by.

Oamaru has laid claim to being the blue penguin capital of New Zealand. These little critters are the smallest of the penguin family measuring only about 30cm tall (about 12”) and weighing in at about 1kg (2.2#s). There is a viewing site managed by a tourist company that will put you up close and personal with the spuds for a mere 45NZD ($~32USD). For that you get to sit front row and watch as they scamper across the field to their nesting houses, takes just a few minutes.

We decided to watch from the seawall for free. A waitress we met in the Star & Garter restaurant tipped us off to just walk past the restaurant and stand on the seawall at 8:15pm if you want to see the penguins for free. So we did and sure enough at almost exactly 8:15pm, the first of 2 “waddles” of penguins arrived. About 20-30 of these cute little critters washed ashore, climbed up the rocks and ran (best they could) across the field to their homes. Whole event lasted about 5 minutes. Second “waddle” landed, about the same size group and did the same thing, about 5 minutes viewing. $4.50/minute for some viewers.

With the major event over for the evening, time to wander back for a glass of Pinot and hit the sack. Not sure it would have been worth $90.

Couple more boulder shots….

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Not so big