Around Oamaru

In the morning we took a drive south to see the boulders at Moeraki. These boulders formed in a slightly similar way to pearls (so the sign said) but rather than an oyster, they formed within mudstone. What results after millions of year of accretion are some strangely round boulders that roll into the sea to be slowly dashed apart by the action of the waves. This is not the only place in the world where they form but it’s one of the most accessible and interesting.

We headed back to our lodgings for lunch and later in the afternoon we went out to visit Oamaru and see if we could spot some penguins. We wandered around the town center including a walk around the park. In one area there were a number of art establishments to peruse which were quite interesting. We had a contact to meet (friend of a friend) but she wasn’t there when we visited.

We then headed out to see the yellow crested penguins which the information office said may come ashore around 6pm. On arrival we found and photographed one one year old moulting penguin right by the observation platform. We later spotted another but after about 100 minutes of waiting around in the cold we did not get to see any penguins returning from the sea. We were pulled between staying a little longer and heading off to the car to get warmed up. In the end we walked back as slowly as we could but that didn’t entice any new visitors.

We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed over to the Blue Penguin area. We had been told that if we waited in the car park we’d get to see penguins come ashore. There was a pay for visitors area that totally obscured the main beach where the penguins came ashore. Where we were was a bit uninspiring and we soon lost interest. Maybe we were in the wrong car park. But after all the nature we’ve seen in the wild all the fences and observations posts and thoughts of sitting more hours in car parks had no appeal. We headed back.

Another weather check this morning and the situation around Mount Cook is nasty for a couple more days. We decided to stay here.

I’ve spent hours and hours wrestling to reinstall Windows Movie Maker and some other s/w onto my new laptop. A month or two ago my PC suggested I upgrade them which I did. The install failed and since then I don’t have the apps. I found a long thread on a Microsoft Help Forum and did everything twice over. No improvement. I added my plea for help and left it there.

All our pictures back to Milton Sound are now uploaded and linked into the appropriate blogs.

I’ve also worked on our 2010 taxes. Seems I’m forever working on taxes but I’m glad it’s mostly done. Just now waiting on one final thing which I couldn’t access due to a website being down.

Tomorrow morning we’re almost certain to head over to Twizel which will be a good staging point for an early departure on Thursday to the Mount Cook area.